Cancer death rates have fallen 27 percent

Andy Uhler Jan 9, 2019
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Cathy Bradley says many cancer patients stay at work because they need the health insurance their employer provides. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Cancer death rates have fallen 27 percent

Andy Uhler Jan 9, 2019
Cathy Bradley says many cancer patients stay at work because they need the health insurance their employer provides. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The American Cancer Society reports good news in the war against the second-leading cause of death in the United States: Cancer death rates have fallen by a total of 27 percent since 1991. The rates of death caused by most forms of cancer are declining — especially lung cancers, thanks to public-health efforts that have reduced smoking rates. Oncology experts say advances in cancer drugs have played a major role, too. Those drugs can come at a steep cost to patients and insurers, and they’ve turned cancer medicine into one of the largest categories in pharmaceuticals, worth $120 billion a year.

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