Story highlights American Cancer Society says overall decline in lung cancer drove a decrease in cancer deaths

This decline translates to more than 2.1 million deaths prevented, a new report says

(CNN) Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. Still, there's reason for hope: Overall, the death rate from all cancers fell 25% between its peak in 1991 and 2014, the most recent year for data, according to a report from the American Cancer Society published online Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

This decline translates to more than 2.1 million deaths prevented if peak rates had continued, according to Rebecca L. Siegel, lead author of the report and strategic director of surveillance and health services research at the American Cancer Society.

"Since the peak in 1991, cancer death rates have been declining by about 1.5% per year, not only because of the reduction in smoking, but also because of improvements in the early detection of cancer (through both screening and increased awareness) and advances in treatment," Siegel wrote in an email. "We anticipate that death rates will continue to decline."

However, Siegel and her co-authors project more than 4,600 new cancer diagnoses each day during 2017.

For the report, the American Cancer Society gathered data from the National Center for Health Statistics at the National Cancer Institute. Available data included cancer cases most recently reported in 2013 and deaths from cancer most recently reported through 2014. The new report also includes an estimate of the total number of deaths prevented, due to declining rates, over time.

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