New estimates from the American Cancer Society (ACS) show that cancer mortality in the United States has dropped by 34% since 1991, preventing an estimated 4.8 million deaths. The data, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, highlight improvements in survival rates and advances in treatment and early detection, but also reveal persistent disparities among different population groups.
The ACS report projects that about 2.1 million new cancer cases and over 626,000 cancer deaths will occur in the U.S. in 2026. This equates to roughly 5,800 new cases and 1,720 deaths each day.
Survival rates have increased across many types of cancer. The five-year survival rate for all cancers rose from 49% in the mid-1970s to 70% during the period from 2015 to 2021. For regional-stage cancers, survival improved from 54% to 69%, while distant-stage cancers saw an increase from 17% to 35%. Some of the largest gains were seen in high-mortality and advanced-stage cancers such as myeloma, liver cancer, metastatic melanoma, metastatic rectal cancer, regional lung cancer, and metastatic lung cancer.
Despite these advances, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death. Predictions indicate that it will claim more lives than colorectal and pancreatic cancers combined in 2026.
The report notes that reductions in smoking rates have contributed significantly to lower mortality for certain cancers like lung cancer. Early detection efforts and new therapies have also played a role.
However, not all groups have benefited equally from these improvements. American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people experience higher overall incidence and mortality rates compared to other populations; Black men face particularly high prostate cancer death rates—two to four times higher than other men. Socioeconomic factors such as limited access to care, lack of insurance coverage, medical mistrust, structural barriers within healthcare systems, unconscious bias among providers, unequal treatment delivery practices and low diversity within clinical trials are cited as key contributors to ongoing disparities.
"These national estimates are model-based projections and should not be used to track year-to-year cancer trends," according to the study authors.
Children aged one through fourteen continue to see progress with a significant decline in mortality—from six per hundred thousand children in 1970 down to two per hundred thousand by last year—and similar trends are noted among adolescents aged fifteen through nineteen years old.
For survivors of childhood cancers who reach age fifty or older there is still a threefold higher risk of overall mortality compared with their peers due largely both subsequent malignancies as well as late effects related primarily previous radiation therapy exposure—a trend which highlights survivorship planning as an emerging public health concern requiring long-term care strategies.
The authors warn that proposed federal cuts affecting research funding or health insurance could slow or reverse progress made so far—especially for communities already experiencing greater burdens from disease:
"These improvements are largely due to decades of scientific investment and resulting diagnostic and therapeutic advancements."
They caution that future policy decisions will play a critical role in determining whether gains continue or stall for those most at risk.
