Cancer mortality rates continue to decline amid 'major progress' in lung cancer early detection and treatment

(CNN) Cancer mortality rates have been dropping for nearly two decades, aided by "major progress" in the early detection and treatment options for lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society's annual report on cancer statistics, published Wednesday.

The overall cancer death rate dropped by about a third (32%) from its peak in 1991 to 2019, from about 215 deaths for every 100,000 people to about 146, averting about 3.5 million deaths during that time, according to the data. Most of that decline can be attributed to a drop in mortality among lung cancer patients.

The American Cancer Society projects that there will be about 1.9 million new cancer diagnoses and more than 609,000 cancer deaths in the United States in 2022, including about 350 deaths per day from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death.

In 2019, about one in four cancer deaths was among lung cancer patients, but lung cancer deaths are declining faster than overall trends. Mortality rates for lung cancer dropped about 5% each year between 2015 and 2019, while overall cancer mortality dropped about 2% in that time.

And the continued downward trends are reason for optimism, experts say.