Researchers at the American Cancer society say cancer prevention, detection and treatment are eroding the disease’s impact. Between 2004 and 2008, cancer claimed fewer American patients and victims, presumably leading to a decrease that continues to this day.

HealthDay reports the fatality rate for cancer-afflicted women has dropped 1.6 percent, while the rate for men has dipped 1.8 percent. The 2008 numbers are even more impressive when stacked against those of 1990, when cancer death rates were 23 percent higher for men and 15 percent higher for women. In that longer span, estimates a senior author of the report, about one million lives that would have been lost to cancer were spared.

Although the news is encouraging, cancer shows no signs of decreasing its stranglehold on the public. Nearly 600,000 people are expected to die from cancer this year, accounting for about one out of every four deaths.

Cancer Incidence, Death Rates Continue to Drop: Report [HealthDay via MSN]

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