The overall cancer mortality rate among men and women in 2018 was 149 cases per 100,000 people.

"Improved treatment accelerated progress against lung cancer and drove a record drop in overall cancer mortality, despite slowing momentum for other common cancers," reads a report published Tuesday in the journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Also, the American Cancer Society projected 608,570 cancer deaths in 2021, with nearly 1.9 million new diagnoses, or 5,200 new cases daily.

"The impact of COVID-19 on cancer diagnoses and outcomes at the population level will be unknown for several years because of the time necessary for data collection, compilation, quality control, and dissemination," Rebecca Siegel, lead author, said in a statement.

"We anticipate that disruptions in access to cancer care in 2020 will lead to downstream increases in advanced-stage diagnoses that may impede progress in reducing cancer mortality rates in the years to come.".

William Cance, chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, voiced concern over "persistent racial, socioeconomic and geographic disparities" for preventable cancers.