On Sept. 3, 2003, the death rates from the four most common cancers, – lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal – continued to decline in the late 1990s according to data from the National Cancer Institute’s “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2000.”

Death rates for all cancer sites combined decreased beginning in 1994 and stabilized from 1998 through 2000, resulting in part from recent revisions in cause-of-death codes. Death rates among men continued to decline throughout the 1990s, whereas trends in death rates among women were essentially unchanged from 1998 through 2000.

Analysis of state data for the leading cancers revealed mixed progress in achieving national objectives for improving cancer screening, risk factor reduction, and decreases in mortality.