The American Cancer Society (ACS) announced that cancer mortality rates in the United States have dropped 22 percent since 1991.

This drop represents a reduction of more than 1.5 million deaths from cancer during this period.

The ACS added that cancer death rates varied across the country, with states in the south experiencing fewer declines in cancer deaths than those in the northeast.

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Another factor in the decline of cancer death rates is gender. The ACS report states that males experienced a slightly greater decline in annual cancer death rates than women by a few decimal points.

Race was also factored. The study found out that black Americans were more likely to die from cancer than any other race or ethnic group in the United States.

A decrease in smoking is also seen as a cause in the drop in the cancer death rate. During the middle of the 1980s, tobacco consumption started to fall among males, while a similar decline was not experienced by female smokers until the 1990s.

"The continuing drops we're seeing in cancer mortality are reason to celebrate, but not to stop. Cancer was responsible for nearly one in four deaths in the United States in 2011, making it the second leading cause of death overall," said John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.

ACS predicts more than 1.65 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during 2015 and over 589,000 will die from the disease. Every year from 2007 to 2011, diagnoses of cancer fell by 1.8 percent in males and have remained steady since then.

In the same period, deaths from cancer dropped 1.8 percent in males and 1.4 percent in females.

Cancer, however, remains one of the deadliest diseases in the U.S.

TagsCancer Mortality Rate, Cancer, American Cancer Society, cancer death, death, deadly health condition, cancer mortality