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Researchers on Wednesday reported the largest-ever one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they credited to advances in lung-tumor treatments. The overall cancer death rate has been falling about 1.5% a year since 1991. It fell 2.2% from 2016 to 2017, according to the new American Cancer Society report. That’s the largest drop ever seen in national cancer statistics going back to 1930, said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author. (1/8)

“Every year that we see a decline in cancer mortality rate, it’s very good news,” said Rebecca Siegel, director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the organization’s report, which was published online in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Experts attributed the decline to the reduced smoking rates and to advances in lung cancer treatment. New therapies for melanoma of the skin have also helped extend life for many people with metastatic disease, or cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. (Sheikh, 1/8)

"This is unambiguously good news," says Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, senior investigator with the Center for Surgery and Public Health, at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He was not involved in the analysis. What's behind the decline? In part, smoking rates have fallen steadily, which means the biggest risk factor for lung cancer has fallen appreciably. New cancer treatments are also playing a role, Siegel says. (Harris, 1/8)

An analysis of the data showed that, since its peak of about 215 cancer deaths for every 100,000 people in 1991, the cancer death rate in the United States has continued to fall. The report found an overall drop of 29% as of 2017, which translates into an estimated 2.9 million fewer cancer deaths than what would have occurred if death rates had remained at their peak, according to the report. (Howard, 1/8)

The decline in mortality from melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, was also dramatic, according to the report. The progress comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved new therapies for metastatic disease, or cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Notably, death from melanoma decreased in people aged 65 years and older, a group where melanoma rates were increasing prior to 2013. (McNamara, 1/8)

Another of the biggest advances, experts said, has been the development of immunotherapies such as Keytruda, also known as pembrolizumab. It uses the body's immune system to fight tumors, and it is approved for lung cancer and melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. (Edwards, 1/8)

Both Davies and Dr. John Heymach, chair of MD Anderson’s lung cancer department, attributed the improvement to “smart drugs” that more precisely target tumors in addition to treatment that releases a brake on the immune system that naturally keeps the body’s defenses from attacking cancer. MD Anderson scientist Jim Allison’s identification of the brake led to a new class of immunotherapy drugs, most approved in the last decade, which have cured many patients of cancers that have historically meant death sentences. (Ackerman, 1/8)

In contrast, progress slowed in preventing death from colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, the report found, all of which can be significantly curtailed with early detection. “The exciting gains in reducing mortality for melanoma and lung cancer are tempered by slowing progress for colorectal, breast, and prostate cancers, which are amenable to early detection,” said Rebecca Siegel, the lead author of the report. (Sullivan, 1/8)

Progress has been incremental, said Dr. Douglas Yee, director of the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center. A new treatment for breast cancer, for example, might work for only the 3% of patients with certain genetic mutations. New guidelines have refined standard chemotherapies so they work better, and new technology has focused radiation beams so they more tightly target tumors rather than healthy tissue. (Olson, 1/8)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg remains clear of cancer, the Supreme Court justice told CNN this week. “I’m cancer free. That’s good,” she told the outlet in an interview published on Wednesday. Ginsburg disclosed her most recent cancer diagnosis last summer, completing a three-week course of radiation therapy to treat a malignant tumor on her pancreas. (Oprysko, 1/8)

A neighborhood west of Atlanta faces cancer risks that exceed what the government considers acceptable for airborne toxins, a study by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) shows. The neighborhood, Westchase at Sandtown, in southern Fulton County, sits about a half-mile southeast of Sterilization Services of Georgia, which uses ethylene oxide gas to sterilize medical products. (Goodman and Miller, 1/8)