A second straight year of declining cancer deaths announced Wednesday marks the beginning of what is expected to be a long-term drop as the success of anti-smoking campaigns launched decades ago accelerates progress against the biggest cancer killer – lung cancer. The American Cancer Society reported that cancer deaths in 2004 dropped by 3,014 – nearly eight times the number during the previous year – driven by sharp declines in colorectal cancer fatalities, which totaled 53,380 in 2004. But the biggest declines in the coming years are expected to be in tobacco-driven tumors in women. Lung cancer kills about 160,000 men and women in the U.S. each year. Previous drops in cancer death rates have been fueled by steep declines in smoking among men, but women have lagged nearly two decades behind them in heeding the call to quit. Lung cancer rates among women have begun to plateau and are expected to begin falling soon, mirroring the pattern observed in men 15 years ago. ‘What we are seeing now is the peak of the lung cancer epidemic in women,’ said epidemiologist Elizabeth Ward, one of the authors of the new report. ‘We would anticipate that […]