Yes it is a theoretical mess. The article manages to conflate in the same sentence: > The decline in smoking rates in the U.S., better early detection and inno

Yes it is a theoretical mess. The article manages to conflate in the same sentence: > The decline in smoking rates in the U.S., better early detection and innovative treatments including immunotherapy drugs have driven a drop in death rates since 1991 which mixes all meanings together (smoke → cases ; detection → fatality ...). So it's just "decreased number of deaths". (Well, on the other hand, it makes sense that more factors impact such "final" result.) From the CDC: > In the past 20 years, from 2001 to 2020, cancer death rates went down 27%, from 196.5 to 144.1 deaths per 100,000 population https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/research/update-on-cancer-deaths/index.htm https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/dcpc/research/update-on-cancer-de...