Washington, November 26: A report by the leading cancer organizations in the United States has showed that cancer cases in the country have decreased for the first time in ten years.

On Tuesday, the National Cancer Institute funded by the National Institutes of Health released a report online which states that there has been a decline in cancer diagnosis rates. Cancer incidence rates decreased by 0.8 percent every year for both males and females during 1999 to 2005.

The report also states that there is a faster decrease in cancer incidence rates for males, which is 1.8 percent every year from 2001 to 2005. Females, on the other hand, have a 0.6 percent decrease in cancer incidence rates every year for the years 1998 through 2005.

This data was collected by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and other leading scientific organizations.

Dr. John E. Niederhuber, director of the National Cancer Institute said, “Each year that you see these steady declines it gives you more confidence that we’re moving in the right direction. This is not just a blip on the screen.”

Cancer death rates also declined starting from 15 years ago. According to the latest report, there was an average of 1.8 percent decrease in number of cancer death rates every year from 2002 to 2005. However, a report released last year had stated that there is an average of 2.1 percent decrease in cancer death rates every year from 2002 to 2004. This means that there has been a decline during the year 2005 thus lowering the average percentage for the latest report.

The reduction in the death rates is attributed to the decrease in the death rates from common cancers for both males and females. These common cancers include prostate cancer and lung cancer for males, breast cancer for females and colorectal cancer for both.

The report states that this reduction may be due to people’s awareness of lifestyle risks and changing their lifestyle accordingly, and improvement in both cancer screening and treatment.

Christine Eheman, chief of the cancer surveillance branch at the Centers for Disease Prevention, has a positive outlook about the report presented. She said, “I do think it’s a good sign but I think we need to be very careful not to think we have this problem in any way beaten. We need to continue to do what we know works, and also find out why some cancers are not decreasing and not decreasing in certain populations.”