Cancer rates are dropping in the United States

EL PASO, Texas - The risk of dying from cancer in the United States has decreased. Cancer death rates have declined in both sexes, all ages, and every major racial and ethnic group in the U.S., according to a National Cancer Institute report published just weeks ago.

The report shows that from 2015 to 2019, overall cancer death rates decreased by 2.1% per year in men and women combined. The success is largely because of fewer people smoking, which resulted in declines in lung and other smoking-related cancers. 

Despite the decline in rates, cancer remains the second-most common cause of U.S. deaths after heart disease, according to the American Cancer Society.