It's the largest drop ever seen in national cancer statistics going back to 1930, said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author.
Associated PressNEW YORK – Researchers on Wednesday reported the largest-ever one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they credited to advances in lung tumor treatments.
“It’s absolutely driven by lung cancer,” which accounts for about a quarter of all cancer deaths, she said. Take lung cancer out of the mix, and the 2017 rate drop is 1.4%, she added. Most lung cancer cases are tied to smoking, and decades of declining smoking rates led to falling rates of lung cancer illnesses and deaths.
Experts also celebrate the impact of newer drugs. Genetic testing can now identify specific cancer cell mutations, which allow more targeted therapy using newer pharmaceuticals that are a step beyond traditional chemotherapy.This 1964 photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a lung tissue specimen from a patient with adenocarcinoma of the lung.
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