Why is America's cancer death rate dropping?

Cancer prognoses are looking up as the condition's death rate is falling down.

Over the last 25 years, America's cancer death rate has fallen by 27 percent, a study by the American Cancer Society published Tuesday reveals. That's about 2.6 million fewer deaths over that span, CNN points out.

Deaths from cancer in the U.S. reached their peak in 1991 and have fallen every year since, the study says. That's partly because of a delayed drop in lung cancer cases after many Americans stopped smoking in the 1960s. Lung cancer rates among men dropped 50 percent since 1991. Improving early detection methods also benefited recovery chances, The Wall Street Journal says.

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Some types of cancer aren't going away, though, The Associated Press notes from the study. Cancers associated with obesity, such as thyroid, pancreas, and uterus, as well as liver cancer, have seen their death rates grow. The study also showed that there's a growing economic gap in death rates, with people in America's poorest counties seeing a 20 percent higher death rate than those in the wealthiest. There's long been a racial gap in cancer prognoses, but the study showed that's narrowing as well. Black Americans had a 33 percent higher death rate than whites in the 1990s, but now it's 14 percent higher, a study researcher tells CNN.

This year, the American Cancer Society projects there will be 1,762,450 new cancer cases and 606,880 cancer deaths. Read the whole study here.