As lifestyles and dietary choices have changed, the relative rates of various kinds of cancer have shifted, and medicine has advanced in its treatment of some. Campaigns to universalize pap smears, for example, have meant earlier detection of cervical cancer and good prognoses for treatment; its mortality rate has dropped from 9.5 per 100,000 a decade ago to last year's 8.4 per 100,000.
因生活環境和飲食習慣的改變，各種癌症互有消長；隨著醫學的發達，部分癌症的發現或治療已有所進展，例如子宮頸癌因子宮頸抹片檢查的推廣與普及，得以早期發現，並且預後良好，死亡率由十年前的十萬分之九・五，降低至去年的十萬分之八・四。