A breast cancer cell. 
 
 Overall, new stats out today from the American Cancer Society show a slight decline in death rates between 2004 and 2008: a drop of 1.8% per year for U.S. men and 1.6% for women. 
 
 Incidence rates are also falling (in men, at least; they were stable in women). But go beyond the overall figures and you’ll find some cancers are on the rise. 
 
 Those diseases with increasing incidence rates are expected to account for about 245,000 new cancer cases this year, of the more than 1.6 million total cancer cases projected for 2012, the ACS says. Among those on-the-rise cancers: 
 
 Human papillomavirus-related cancers of the oropharynx (the back of the tongue and throat and tonsil area): As we reported last year these cancers are increasing in part because of the increased practice of oral sex. Meantime, the ACS notes, there’s been a steady decline in the incidence of oropharyngeal cancers that aren’t related to HPV; those are mostly caused by tobacco and alcohol use, and smoking rates are down. 
 
 Esophageal adenocarcinoma (among white and Hispanic men) as well as pancreatic, liver and kidney cancers are on the rise, and obesity may play a role, the ACS says. Obesity, for example, is associated with a 16-fold increased risk for esophageal adenocarcinoma. Other factors are also playing a role in some of these diseases: about half of liver cancers in the U.S. are among people with chronic hepatitis C infection, the ACS says, and the increase in incidence is consistent with the aging of the HCV-infected population. 
 
 Melanoma: More older white males and women of all ages are getting the deadliest form of skin cancer, the ACS says. The increase “may reflect changing sun exposure patterns and the use of indoor tanning booths by young women, as well as increased awareness and detection practices.” (The link with indoor tanning has been somewhat controversial.) The good news is that two new drugs were approved last year to treat metastatic melanoma. 
 
 Thyroid cancer: Rates increased in all ethnic and racial groups, except American Indian or Alaska Native men, during 1999-2008. Increased detection of small tumors may play a role, though more recent research suggests there is a “real” increase in incidence as well, the ACS says. 
 
 While progress on the obesity and smoking fronts could reduce the incidence of some of these forms of the disease, “additional research is needed to determine the role of other factors and to develop appropriate screening, early detection and treatment programs to reduce pain and suffering from these cancers,” the ACS says. 
 
 Image: iStockphoto ||||| A radiologist compares an image from earlier mammogram technology to a 3-D digital mammogram in Wichita Falls, Tex. (Torin Halsey/Times Record News/AP) 
 
 Breast cancer death rates declined almost 40 percent between 1989 and 2015, averting 322,600 deaths, the American Cancer Society reported Tuesday. 
 
 Breast cancer death rates increased by 0.4 percent per year from 1975 to 1989, according to the study. After that, mortality rates decreased rapidly, for a 39 percent drop overall through 2015. The report, the latest to document a long-term reduction in breast-cancer mortality, attributed the declines to both improvements in treatments and to early detection by mammography. 
 
 Deanna Attai, a breast cancer surgeon at the University of California at Los Angeles who was not involved in the study, said the advances in treatment included much better chemotherapy regimens — developed in the 1980s and refined ever since — that are administered post-surgery to reduce the risk of recurrence. Other improvements have included tamoxifen, an anti-estrogen agent that was approved in the late 1970s; Herceptin, a drug used to treat tumors with a higher-than-normal level of a protein called HER2 and drugs called aromatase inhibitors. 
 
 More recently, more sophisticated targeted treatments are being used to treat cancer that has spread beyond the breast. 
 
 
 
 (American Cancer Society) 
 
 Even with the gains, however, the toll of the disease remains high. Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in U.S. women and the second-leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer. About 252,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, and more than 40,600 women are expected to die of the disease. A woman in the United States has a 12.4 percent, or 1 in 8, lifetime risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer. 
 
 Between 2006 and 2015, the study found, death rates decreased for all racial and ethnic groups tracked — non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders, Hispanics and American Indians/Alaska Natives. But there were substantial variations in mortality the different groups. 
 
 In 2015, the death rate for black women diagnosed with breast cancer was 39 percent higher than that for white women. While high, that's actually an improvement; the number was 44 percent higher in 2011. The black-white disparity emerged beginning in the 1980s, underscoring that black women have not shared in the screening and treatment advances that have benefited white women. One reason, the report noted, is that black women didn't benefit as much from the development of tamoxifen because they are less likely to have the kind of breast cancer, called estrogen-receptor positive, that is treated with the drug. 
 
 In seven states, the report found, the mortality rates for white women and black women in 2015 were the same. But the cancer group was cautious about interpreting those statistics, saying that in some of those states there might be too few cases to draw conclusions. However, researchers said they were confident the improvements in reducing or eliminating the racial disparity were real in at least three states: Connecticut, Delaware and Massachusetts. 
 
 “This means that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Carol DeSantis, director of breast and gynecological cancer surveillance research for the cancer society and the lead author of the study. “Some states are showing that they can close the gap.” 
 
 Still, the remaining black-white disparity “is not acceptable,” said Lee Schwartzberg, a medical oncologist at West Cancer Center in Germantown, Tenn. He said the gap reflects complicated social, economic and biological factors that are not yet fully understood, including insurance and employment status. In addition, black women are twice as likely as white women to develop so-called triple negative breast cancer, which can be harder to treat, the report noted. 
 
 “We have patients who get diagnosed with cancer and have difficulty making their appointments, like radiation every day for four or five weeks” because they can't take off from work, Schwartzberg said. 
 
 The “excess death rate” — the difference between the death rates of black and white women — ranged from 20 percent in Nevada to 66 percent in Louisiana, the study found. 
 
 Eighty-one percent of breast cancers are diagnosed among women ages 50 years and older, the study found, and 89 percent of breast-cancer deaths occur in that age group. The median age at diagnosis for women overall is 62. 
 
 The findings were published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians and its companion consumer publication Breast Cancer Facts & Figures. The reports are published every two years and cover the latest trends in breast cancer rates, deaths, survival and screening, by race and ethnicity. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Julia Louis-Dreyfus diagnosed with breast cancer 
 
 Is pregnancy safe after breast cancer? Here's what the latest data shows. 
 
 Women with advanced breast cancer are surviving longer, study says 
 
 Many high-risk patients with breast cancer aren't getting genetic testing. Here's why. ||||| (CNN) Men are dying at a higher rate than women from melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer, a new global analysis said. 
 
 Over the last three decades, male deaths from melanoma were higher than female deaths in 33 countries, according to the analysis presented Sunday at the 2018 NCRI Cancer Conference in Glasgow. Rates among women have either stabilized or decreased. 
 
 The study focused on 33 developed countries in Europe, North America and Australasia, as they had the most reliable data. 
 
 The researchers "wanted to conduct an up-to-date analysis of recent melanoma mortality rates across the world to try to understand these patterns, and whether new diagnosis, treatment and prevention strategies are having any effect," said Dr. Dorothy Yang, a junior doctor at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, who led the research. 
 
 
 
 "Over the past 30 years mortality trends (for melanoma) have increased in most countries," Yang told CNN. "There is evidence that suggests men are less likely to protect themselves from the sun or engage with melanoma awareness and prevention campaigns." 
 
 She added that female and male biological differences are currently being studied to find out if these also contribute to the gender disparity in deaths from melanoma and stressed this is an observational study and that more research is needed into why there are gender differences in the mortality rates. 
 
 Melanoma has the highest mortality rate of skin cancers, according to the paper, and accounted for 1.7% of all cancer diagnoses worldwide this year. Yang's team analyzed World Health Organization data on mortality rates from melanoma between 1985 and 2015 and identified a rise in male deaths from melanoma in 32 out of the 33 countries included in the analysis. The researchers took aging or younger populations in each country into account for their analysis. 
 
 Rise in 32 countries 
 
 Australia and Slovenia were found to have the highest number of melanoma deaths across both sexes for the time period 2013 to 2015. In Australia, 5.72 male deaths were reported for every 100,000 men, compared to 2.53 female deaths per every 100,000 women. Rates among men in Slovenia were 3.86 per 100,000. 
 
 Other countries, like Slovakia and Croatia, also experienced a large number of male deaths from melanoma during this period. 
 
 The UK was in the middle, with 2.57 men dying per 100,000 compared to 1.58 among women. The US did not have data for this time period. 
 
 Japan saw the lowest increase of melanoma deaths for the three-year period, with 0.24 men in every 100,000 dying and 0.18 out of 100,000 women. 
 
 The only country which reported a decrease in male deaths of melanoma was Czech Republic. There, a 0.7% annual decrease was found between 1985 to 2015. 
 
 Israel and Czech Republic were the best performing countries when it came to reduction of female mortality rates, with Israel reporting a 23.4% drop and Czech Republic reporting a 15.5% decrease of female deaths due to the skin cancer. 
 
 Portugal saw the largest growth of male mortality rates due to melanoma from 1985 to 2015, with a 192.4% increase, followed by Greece and Ireland, which saw rises of 121% and 115.5%, respectively. 
 
 For female melanoma deaths during the same time period, Portugal also lead with an increase of 160.7%, followed by Greece, where female deaths rose by 130.6% and Spain, where female deaths increased by 73.6%. 
 
 Exposure to UV radiation 
 
 The largest risk factor for melanoma is overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, from sun exposure or using sunbeds, explained Yang. 
 
 Despite public health efforts to increase people's awareness of these risk factors, Yang mentioned there has been an increase of melanoma cases over the past decades, particularly in regions with fair-skinned populations. 
 
 Earlier this year, scientists in Australia developed an experimental blood test that could detect melanoma with an 84% accuracy. 
 
 The American Cancer Society estimates that 5,990 US men and 3,330 US women will die from the skin cancer in 2018. 
 
 "We know that nine in 10 people diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer in the UK survive their disease for at least 10 years," Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UK's head information nurse, said in an email to CNN. "A growing and aging population means that more people are being diagnosed with the disease than ever before." 
 
 Ledwick added that while this study shows death rates for men have increased, more investigation is needed to find out why. "Once we know the answer, researchers may recommend targeting men with information about how to reduce their risk of skin cancer such as advice on staying safe in the sun and getting any new moles or blemishes -- or changes to existing ones -- checked out by a doctor." 
 
 Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. 
 
 "This research shows that death rates for melanoma are stabilizing or decreasing in some countries, particularly for women," Poulam Patel, chair of the NCRI Skin Cancer Clinical Studies group and professor of clinical oncology at the University of Nottingham, said in an email to CNN. Patel, who was not involved with the research, added that the findings require further scrutiny. 
 
 "These results also suggest that melanoma will continue to be a health issue over the coming years, and we will need to find effective strategies to accurately diagnose and successfully treat patients," Patel said.
– Cancer death rates are down overall, the American Cancer Society says, falling 1.8% among men and 1.6% among women between 2004 and 2008. Rates have dropped across all ethnic groups except American Indians and Alaskan natives, the Los Angeles Times notes. But the incidence of some types of the disease is climbing, and the Wall Street Journal has details: Cancers of the oropharynx—around the back of the throat—tied to human papillomavirus are climbing, though oropharyngeal cancers unrelated to HPV are dropping, perhaps thanks to declining smoking rates. Esophageal adenocarcinoma is rising in white and Hispanic men, and pancreatic, liver, and kidney cancer are all up, with a possible link to obesity. The most dangerous skin cancer, melanoma, is rising in women of all ages and older white males, while thyroid cancer is increasing in all ethnic groups apart from American Indian and Alaska native men. Meanwhile, cancer mortality rates among young adults 15-39 haven't gotten any better, CBS News notes. "Young adults don't get cancers that are easily screened," says a survivor.