USA cancer falls: better detection, better drugs

The American Cancer Society has listed improvements in detection and treatment, as well as a reduction in smoker numbers, as the reasons for the first recorded fall in the USA's cancer deaths since the 1930s. The rate of deaths has been falling since the early 1990s, but the aging popu-lation meant that the overall figure continued to rise.

Early-diagnosed breast cancer five-year survival rates have increased from 80% in the 1950s to 98%. In 2003, the ACS states that there were 556,902 cancer deaths, a fall of 369 on the previous year.