Despite improving cancer rates overall in Boston, the disease remains the leading cause of death among residents, surpassing heart disease, the No. 1 killer nationally, according to a new report.

In 2013, cancer was responsible for one-quarter of all deaths in the city — more than heart disease and stroke combined, according to the Boston Public Health Commission.

The leading causes of cancer death are breast, lung, prostate and colorectal cancer. However, Dr. Timothy Rebbeck, a professor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said Boston is not unique.

“Lots of other cities and countries have that problem,” Rebbeck said.

Since Bostonians tend to have regular access to good health care, he said, there are fewer people suffering from preventable diseases, leaving cancer to take first place. Of the five cancers discussed in the report, liver cancer is the only type with both increasing incidence and mortality among Boston residents.

From 1999 to 2013, the age-adjusted liver cancer incidence rate soared by 52 percent, and the age-adjusted mortality rate rose by 34 percent.

The latter was driven by white men, whose age-adjusted mortality rate jumped by 48 percent over the 15 years the commission studied.

From 1999 to 2003, however, the incidence rate for all cancer types combined decreased by 11 percent, the report said, and the age-adjusted mortality rate fell by 22 percent.

The report attributes those declines to a combination of factors, including programs supporting healthy lifestyles, increased access to health coverage and screenings and improvements in treatments that are making cancer survivorship an emerging “new normal.”

But the disease has persistent, disparate impacts by sex, race and ethnicity, the report said. From 1999 to 2013, black, Latino and Asian residents experienced no change in all cancer incidence, for example, while whites experienced a 14 percent decline.

From 2011 to 2013, the age-adjusted prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates for black men were 2.1 and 2.7 times the rates for white men. Over the same period, the breast cancer mortality rate among women under age 65 was 78 percent higher for black women than for white women.

“We’re acknowledging there still are these racial differences, and we’re developing programs and supports to address that,” said Mary Bovenzi, director of the BPHC’s chronic disease and control division.

The commission has formed a new cancer advisory group that will tackle prostate cancer rates when it meets for the first time next Friday. And the Boston Breast Cancer Equity Coalition has received a grant to examine premature mortality among black women.