US Cancer Mortality Continues Declining, Driven Largely by Lung Cancer Progress

Cancer death rates continued to decline among US men and women from 2019 to 2023, according to a CDC announcement of the 2026 Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, published in Cancer. The population-based report examines cancer incidence from 2003 to 2022 and mortality from 2004 to 2023, using cancer registry data compiled by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries and mortality data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

The mortality decline extends a trend lasting more than 20 years and is attributed largely to accelerated progress against lung cancer. Nevertheless, lung cancer remains the second most common cancer in both sexes and the leading cause of US cancer deaths. Overall cancer incidence rose slightly each year from 2018 to 2022, driven by increases in female breast cancer and prostate cancer. Overall incidence among men remained stable despite the prostate cancer increase.

The report’s special focus examines lung cancer risk factors and outcomes during the first quarter of the 21st century. Researchers emphasized further smoking reductions, tobacco-free environments, and access to early detection, timely diagnosis, and current treatments as priorities for sustaining progress. The CDC release does not provide absolute rates, annual percentage changes, sample sizes, or uncertainty estimates, limiting assessment of the magnitude of these trends.