WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More Americans are surviving cancer for 5years or longer and cancer rates overall are steadily declining, according to the latest annual report on cancer in the United States issued on Thursday.

For the first time, fewer women are being diagnosed with lung cancer, the joint report from the American Cancer Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries finds.

Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States behind heart disease. This year 1,368,000 Americans will learn they have cancer and 563,700 will die of it.

The "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2001" states that cancer rates dropped 0.5% per year from 1991 to 2001, while mortality from all cancers combined dropped 1.1% per year from 1993 to 2001.

This is due to better prevention, earlier diagnoses and better therapies.

Among women, lung cancer rates have been steadily increasing as rates among men fell, because women tended to start smoking and to quit later than men did.

But the statistics show that between 1975 and 2001 the number of lung cancer cases diagnosed in women fell by 0.2%.

"The first-ever drop in lung cancer incidence rates in women is remarkable proof that we are making a difference in the number one cancer killer, and is powerful evidence that our successful efforts must continue," said John Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.

Nonetheless about 174,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year and 160,000 will die of it.

The report builds on one issued by the American Cancer Society in January, which also showed that overall cancer incidence and prevalence dropped across the United States.

The joint report compares 5-year mortality of cancer patients diagnosed between 1975 and 1979 to those diagnosed between 1995 and 2000.

Ten percent gains in cancer survival rates were seen in men for prostate, colon and kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, melanoma and leukemia.

Women had 10% survival gains in colon, kidney, and breast cancers and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

But the report found that patients with lung, pancreatic or liver cancers were only a little more likely to survive.

And almost every racial and ethnic minority was more likely than whites to die of cancer.

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