SCIENCE IN THE NEWS DAILY

Fewer Smokers Linked to Lower Cancer Death Rate

from USA Today

The number of new cancer cases and deaths are falling for both men and women for the first time since the government began compiling a report on long-term trends, researchers announced Tuesday.

Overall cancer death rates decreased an average of 1.8% a year from 2002 to 2005, the report shows. Death rates have been falling since the government began tracking this trend in 1998.

Researchers say they were particularly encouraged that the number of new cases also fell, by an average of 0.8% a year, from 1999 to 2005. Those findings mark a change from the past, in which the cancer rate fell in men, but rose or held steady in women, as female smokers and former smokers succumbed to lung cancer.