The 'changing picture' of cancer deaths in America: By the numbers

Participants attend the 2011 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in New York: In the past two decades, there were 34 percent fewer breast cancer-related deaths.

(Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

Cancer-related deaths in the United States are dropping — and have been for the past two decades — according to this year's annual report by the American Cancer Society. And some of the largest reductions came in cases involving the biggest killers, including breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancers. The decline came thanks mostly to early detection by increasingly sophisticated screening methods, and advances in treatment. Here's a look at the "changing picture" of the disease, by the numbers:

1 million