The number of deaths from three of the most common cancers in the UK has dropped to its lowest level for nearly 40 years.
Cancer Research UK figures have revealed that the mortality rates for breast, bowel and male lung cancer are at their lowest since 1971.
Harpal Kumar, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "Years of research are behind the dramatic progress being made in the fight against Britain’s common cancers.
"Survival rates have doubled in the last thirty years and the work of Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of that progress.”
The figures show that breast cancer deaths peaked in 1989, when 15,625 women died from the disease. The latest figures (from 2007) showed the figure having dropped to 11,990.
For bowel cancer the mortality rate peaked in 1992 at 19,598 deaths, but was down by 31% in 2007.
The number of men dying from lung cancer was down by 53% in 2007 from the number in 1979.