On Jun. 3, 2004, the National Cancer Institute’s Annual Report to the Nation found cancer incidence and death rates on the decline as survival rates showed significant improvement. Overall, cancer death rates for all racial and ethnic populations combined declined by 1.1% per year from 1993 to 2001 and also declined for many of the top 15 cancers in both men and women. Lung cancer death rates among women leveled off for the first time between 1995 and 2001 after increasing continuously for many decades.