Healthy People 2020 continued the Healthy People 2010 cancer goal to reduce the overall number of new cancer cases, as well as the illness, disability, and death caused by cancer. Although there was a 20 percent reduction in reported cancer deaths between 1991 and 2009, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States accounting for one in every four deaths. It is the leading cause of death for both males and females between age 40 and 79. In 2015, it is projected that 1,658,370 new cases of cancer and 589,430 cancer-related deaths will occur. It is also projected that cancers of the prostate, lung and bronchus, and colorectal areas will account for about 50 percent of new cancer cases among men in 2015; prostate cancer will account for 26 percent of these new cases.
