Less smoking and better screening and treatment have added up to a two-year decline in cancer deaths in the U.S., researchers say.

The Baltimore Sun reported Jan. 18 that the American Cancer Society said that 553,888 people died from cancer in 2004 -- the latest year for which data was available. That's about 3,000 fewer cancer deaths than in 2003, a year in which absolute numbers of cancer deaths declined for the first time since recordkeeping began in the 1930s.

The trend occurred despite an aging and growing population. "We are clearly on the right path," Dr. Martin D. Abeloff, director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. "We are seeing that cancer is really beginning to convert to a chronic disease."

Among the "incremental gains" cited by Abeloff were lower rates of lung, prostate and colorectal cancer in men and breast and colorectal cancers among women. On the other hand, the study found that African-Americans were more likely to die of cancer than any other ethnic group, even though they tend to smoke less. "We think much of this gap is due to lack of access to health care and information," said study co-author Elizabeth Ward. "African-Americans are less likely to get screening and treatment in a timely way."

Also, the lung-cancer death rate continued to rise among women, even as it fell among men.