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Cancer in America Is Way Down, For the Wealthy Anyway

Mortality rates declined each year from 1991 through 2016, averting 2.6 million deaths. But for those in poor and rural areas, the news isn’t so good.

Bloomberg business news
Cancer death rate falling in the U.S.

The good news is that cancer in America was beaten back over the 25 years ending 2016, with death rates plummeting, particularly when it comes to the four most common types of the dreaded affliction.

There’s a caveat, however. Those gains have been reaped mostly by the well-off. While racial disparities have begun to narrow, the impact of limited access to treatment for the poorest Americans has increased wealth-based inequality, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual update on trends and statistics.