The U.S. cancer death rate fell two percent in 2006, continuing a long-term trend, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.

The Associated Press reported May 27 that federal data indicates that the cancer death rate dropped to 181 per 100,000 people in 2006, with lung cancer accounting for approximately 30 percent of cancer deaths that year. Smoking cessation is cited as a main reason for the decrease in the lung-cancer death rate among men.

Because of population growth, the cancer death rate must decrease by at least two percent in order for a decrease in the cancer rate per 100,000 people to result in a drop in the number of cancer deaths. While the cancer death rate has been decreasing since the early 1990s, this is the first time since 2003 that a decrease in the death rate resulted in fewer total cancer deaths.

The report will be published in the July/August 2009 print issue of the Cancer Society publication CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.