The U.S. is winning more ground against cancer than many people realize. The overall cancer death rate fell 35% between 1991 and 2024, averting nearly 5 million deaths, according to the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Progress Report, as MedPage Today’s Mike Bassett reports.
The biggest driver? Fewer smokers, and therefore fewer lung cancer deaths, a decline sped up by better early detection and treatment. Falling death rates for colorectal and breast cancer helped too.
“Today the 5-year cancer-related survival rate for all cancers combined has reached a milestone of 71%, a testament to the power of cancer research,” said AACR president Keith Flaherty, MD, of the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute in Boston.
New treatments keep arriving. The FDA has recently approved 11 new anticancer therapies and five new indications for existing drugs. Flaherty also highlighted the approval of daraxonrasib (Rasonque), a first-in-class RAS inhibitor that doubled median overall survival in a phase III trial for metastatic pancreatic cancer. Preventive and therapeutic cancer vaccines are gaining momentum as well.
Still, the gains are uneven. Five-year survival sits at 14% for pancreatic cancer and 7% for glioblastoma, versus 92% for breast cancer and 98% for prostate cancer. Early-onset cancers are also rising, disproportionately among women.
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Roughly 40% of U.S. cancer cases trace to modifiable risk factors like obesity, spurring interest in GLP-1 drugs. Some studies link them to lower cancer risk, but a review of 48 clinical trials found no significant reduction, leaving the evidence “inconsistent,” per the report.
The AACR also warned that proposed rules letting federal agencies terminate grants “for reasons unrelated to scientific merit or recipient performance” could stall that momentum. “The current turmoil at NIH and other federal health agencies threatens continued progress for patients,” Flaherty said.
