An American Original: Cancer Deaths Decline  13 November 1996
7:00 pm  WASHINGTON, D.C.--A stalemate that has gripped the
longest and most expensive war in modern times--the war on
cancer--may finally have eased. The cancer death rate in the
United States fell 2.6% between 1991 and 1995, the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) announced today, marking the first
sustained decline in 6 decades of modern cancer records.  "This
looks like a turning point in the 25-year war on cancer," Donna
Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a
statement today. "This is not just a one-time blip, but a real
and promising downward trend." Following a 6.4% increase in
cancer mortality between 1971 and 1990, the decline suggests
that changes in lifestyle and improved treatments are starting
to pay off.  For instance, lung cancer mortality in men dropped
6.7%, accounting for more than half the overall 4.3% drop in
cancer deaths among men. NCI attributes this fall in part to the
15% decline between 1955 and 1970 in the