Cancer Death Rate Fell 35% Since 1991, 4.8M Lives Saved

The overall cancer death rate in the US fell 35% between 1991 and 2024—translating to 4.8 million fewer deaths—a decline the newly released American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Cancer Progress Report 2026 credits to decades of federal investment in the NIH, National Cancer Institute (NCI), FDA, and CDC. However, while there were 11 new FDA-approved anticancer therapeutics between July 2025 and June 2026, the AACR warns that continued progress will require sustained federal investment in cancer research.¹

“Over the course of my 25-year career as a physician-scientist, I have witnessed a remarkable transformation in our understanding of cancer and how we diagnose and treat patients,” said AACR president Keith Flaherty, MD, FAACR, in a statement. “Advances in genomics, immunology, and artificial intelligence have given us more insight than ever before into the complexities of cancer. This knowledge is helping us to develop highly effective treatments—and entirely new therapeutic approaches—that more precisely match each patient’s disease.”

New Approvals Include Several “Firsts”

This cycle's approvals included several notable firsts, according to AACR. Dordaviprone (Modeyso; Jazz Pharmaceuticals) became the first molecularly targeted therapy for a rare, aggressive brain tumor defined by a specific genetic alteration. Vepdegestrant (Veppanu; Arvinas and Pfizer) is the first proteolysis-targeting chimera—a therapeutic that redirects a cell's own protein-degradation machinery against cancer cells—to reach approval, in this case for breast cancer.

FDA also cleared the first immune checkpoint inhibitor for ovarian cancer, pembrolizumab (Keytruda; Merck), and the first CAR T-cell therapy for marginal zone lymphoma, lisocabtagene maraleucel (Breyanzi; Bristol Myers Squibb).

Over the same 12 months, the FDA also expanded the use of 5 previously approved therapeutics to new cancer types and cleared several artificial intelligence (AI)–based tools for early cancer detection, a wearable device for pancreatic cancer treatment, and an at-home HPV self-collection kit. Because many of these molecularly targeted and immune-based therapeutics are still new to clinical practice, the report cautions that their long-term and late effects remain unknown, and it calls for close monitoring of patients receiving them.

Survival Gains, but Persistent Gaps

Progress has been especially notable for patients with advanced disease. The 5-year relative survival rate for distant-stage cancer, across all cancer types combined, more than doubled over 3 decades, climbing from 17% in the mid-1990s to 36% during 2016-2022. Survival still varies widely by cancer type, however: the report cites 5-year survival rates of just 13.7% for pancreatic cancer and 6.6% for glioblastoma, compared with more than 90% for breast and prostate cancers.

The report also flags a rise in early-onset cancers, defined as those diagnosed in patients 18 to 49 years old, pointing to gastrointestinal cancers such as colorectal and stomach cancer as major drivers, alongside risk factors including rising obesity rates, more sedentary lifestyles, and shifts in diet.

GLP-1 Drugs Show Mixed Signals on Cancer Risk

The report also examines whether glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs)—a class that includes semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy; Novo Nordisk) and liraglutide (Victoza; Novo Nordisk)—affect cancer risk beyond their weight-loss and glycemic effects. In a UK study, semaglutide use was associated with a 12% reduction in obesity-related cancer risk, compared with a 15% reduction among patients who underwent bariatric surgery; tirzepatide showed no significant overall reduction but was linked to a 69% lower risk of ovarian cancer specifically. Among patients with type 2 diabetes, GLP-1 RA use was associated with a 40% lower risk of esophageal cancer and a 46% lower risk of colorectal cancer compared with insulin therapy, and broader evidence points to reductions of 18% to 38% across gastrointestinal, skin, breast, female genital, prostate, and hematologic cancers. Not every signal points the same direction: liraglutide use was associated with a 70% higher risk of thyroid cancer and a 62% higher risk of respiratory cancer.

A review of 48 clinical trials involving more than 94,000 participants found no significant reduction in overall obesity-related cancer risk, leading AACR to conclude that GLP-1 RAs' role in cancer prevention remains unproven and warrants further study.

AI Is Reshaping Drug Discovery and Clinical Care

AI is accelerating multiple stages of cancer research, according to the report. Combining AI with spatial imaging has let researchers generate high-resolution maps of the tumor microenvironment, revealing how cancer and immune cells interact within a tumor. In drug discovery, one AI model screened roughly 10,000 human proteins against more than 500 million compounds and identified more than 2 million candidate molecules, addressing a persistent bottleneck: about 90% of druggable disease targets still lack a small-molecule therapy.

AI is also easing administrative burden on clinicians; after 30 days of using an ambient AI scribe that generates clinical notes from patient visits, one health system saw clinician burnout fall from 52% to 39%.

Cancer Vaccines Move Beyond a Single Approved Product

The only FDA-approved therapeutic cancer vaccine remains sipuleucel-T (Provenge; Dendreon Pharmaceuticals), cleared in 2010 for advanced prostate cancer, but personalized and shared-antigen vaccines are advancing across several tumor types. In a 5-year follow-up of patients with high-risk melanoma, an individualized mRNA neoantigen vaccine given with immunotherapy after surgery produced sustained improvements in recurrence-free and distant metastasis-free survival compared with immunotherapy alone. In early-stage triple-negative breast cancer, an individualized mRNA vaccine generated durable T-cell responses, and most patients remained relapse-free for up to 6 years.

Early results are also emerging in harder-to-treat cancers: in a phase 1 trial, a personalized DNA vaccine using up to 40 neoantigens per patient induced vaccine-specific T-cell responses in nearly all participants with glioblastoma, and a lymph-node-targeted vaccine against mutant KRAS generated durable immune responses in patients with pancreatic and colorectal cancers who had minimal residual disease after standard treatment. For Lynch syndrome, a hereditary condition that raises colorectal and other cancer risks, a small trial of an mRNA-based vaccine called Nous-209 in 45 participants found the vaccine to be safe and capable of triggering a strong, durable immune response.

A Call to Action Meets a Live Funding Fight

The report closes with a call to action urging Congress to provide at least $51.303 billion for NIH and $7.999 billion for NCI in fiscal year (FY) 2027 and to keep federal grantmaking decisions guided by scientific merit rather than political considerations. That request lands amid an ongoing fight over an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposal, the Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance, which would give political appointees broader authority to terminate active research grants; AACR's report notes that bipartisan congressional action had already delayed the rule through December 11, 2026.

That fight has continued to move since the report went to press. Congress has since passed a stopgap spending bill blocking the rule through December 11, and President Trump signed it into law on September 3, 2026.² OMB director Russell Vought has said his office will not implement the rule before January 1, 2027. ³
“More must be done to permanently block this policy before it is allowed to take effect,” said Rep Rosa DeLauro (D, Connecticut), the House Appropriations Committee's ranking member, ahead of the vote. “Federal funding must be awarded as Congress intended, based upon genuine need and objective merit. Funding for cancer research should not be blocked because of partisan politics.”

References

1. AACR releases annual Cancer Progress Report highlighting promising advances for patients. AACR. News release. September 16, 2026. Accessed September 16, 2026. https://www.aacr.org/about-the-aacr/newsroom/news-releases/aacr-releases-annual-cancer-progress-report-highlighting-promising-advances-for-patients/
2. Mosley B. FY27 appropriations update: Congress passes continuing resolution; punts FY27 to December. Computing Research Association. September 3, 2026. Accessed September 16, 2026. https://cra.org/govaffairs/blog/2026/09/fy2027-sept-update/
3. Zhang C. Congress delays OMB grantmaking rule with stopgap funding bill. American Institute of Physics. September 2, 2026. Accessed September 16, 2026. https://www.aip.org/fyi/congress-delays-omb-grantmaking-rule-with-stopgap-funding-bill