U.S. Cancer Mortality Declined 35% Since 1991, AACR Report Shows

The overall cancer mortality rate in the U.S. declined by 35% between 1991 and 2024, resulting in almost 5 million cancer deaths averted, according to the 2026 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Progress Report.

That decline was largely driven by decreased smoking rates and an ensuing decline in lung cancer deaths, a trend that accelerated due to advances in early detection and treatment.

Declines in death rates for colorectal cancer and breast cancer over the past three decades have also been key in reducing the overall U.S. cancer mortality rate, the AACR said.

“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, during a congressional briefing coinciding with release of the report.

However, the AACR warned that advances in cancer research face a threat in the form of proposed rules that “would inject political considerations into funding decisions and give federal agencies broader authority to terminate grants, including awards supporting ongoing clinical trials, for reasons unrelated to scientific merit or recipient performance.”

“The current turmoil at NIH and other federal health agencies threatens continued progress for patients,” Flaherty said. “We urge Congress to maintain strong bipartisan support for sustained federal investment, so that life-saving discoveries leading to advances in cancer can continue.”

FDA Approvals

The AACR noted that between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, the FDA approved 11 new anticancer therapies and new indications for five previously approved anticancer therapies.

And while it was not included in the current report, Flaherty highlighted last month’s approval of the first-in-class RAS inhibitor daraxonrasib (Rasonque) for metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) after a phase III clinical trial showed that second-line treatment with the drug doubled median overall survival versus investigator’s choice of chemotherapy in metastatic PDAC associated with RAS G12 mutations.

In a recorded message, former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who last December was diagnosed with metastatic, stage IV pancreatic cancer and was told his life expectancy was 3 months, talked about how he “was blessed to be one of the guinea pigs in a clinical trial that produced a now-FDA approved treatment for pancreatic cancer.”

The AACR report also detailed how research on preventive and therapeutic cancer vaccines is gaining momentum.

For example, a recent study showed that a peptide vaccine targeting KRAS mutations in patients at high risk for pancreatic cancer induced durable T-cell responses, while another study showed that an investigational individualized vaccine for surgically resected melanoma demonstrated durable benefits in reducing the risks of recurrence and distant spread after 5 years.

However, the report also noted that successes in the fight against cancer vary by cancer type and stage.

For patients diagnosed between 2016 and 2022, the overall 5-year relative survival rate was 14% for pancreatic cancer and 7% for glioblastoma multiforme, compared with 92% for breast cancer and 98% for prostate cancer.

The high overall survival rates for breast and prostate cancers, however, differed by stage. For individuals with disease confined to the breast or prostate, the 5-year survival rate is nearly 100%, while the rates are just 34% and 40%, respectively, for those with metastatic disease.

The AACR also pointed out that the incidence of early-onset cancers is increasing, and has grown disproportionately among females.

GLP-1 Medications and Cancer

A reduction in smoking rates and the decline in lung cancer deaths is just one example of the association between cancer cases and modifiable risk factors.

The AACR report notes that about 40% of cancer cases in the U.S. and 41% of all cancer cases and deaths globally can be attributed to modifiable risk factors. While the rate of smoking tobacco has declined significantly, other risk factors, like obesity, continue to rise.

The focus on obesity-related cancers has led to research on weight loss interventions like GLP-1 agonists and whether they can potentially reduce the risk of those cancers.

A 2026 study, for example, linked GLP-1 use to a 41% lower risk of obesity-associated cancers compared with patients prescribed diet or exercise, while a separate study showed that the use of those obesity medications in patients with stage I-III colorectal, liver, breast, or lung cancers was significantly associated with lower rates of progression to metastatic disease over a 5-year period.

Other research suggested that GLP-1 use may also be associated with reductions in the risk of skin, prostate, hematologic, and some gynecologic cancers.

However, another study — a large review of 48 clinical trials involving more than 94,000 participants treated with GLP-1 agonists — found no significant reduction in the overall risk of obesity-related cancers, while other research has suggested GLP-1 use may increase the risk of some cancers. Thus, “evidence regarding GLP-1 use and cancer risk reduction remains inconsistent,” the report stated.

“Additional research will be needed to determine whether these medications can effectively reduce cancer risk, and if so, what types of cancers,” Flaherty said. “How can we integrate these therapies ultimately in terms of providing a more precision prevention early diagnosis strategy?”