Austin American-Statesman, Jan. 18, 2007 WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who died of cancer has dropped for a second straight year, marking a milestone in the war on cancer, officials said Wednesday. Cancer deaths in the United States in 2004 fell to 553,888 — a drop-off of 3,014 deaths from 2003, according to statistics analyzed by the American Cancer Society. Dr. Courtney Townsend Jr., chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston since 1995, said, "Two things strike me: The death rates from prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. More people are having tests for blood and colonoscopies, as recommended by the American Cancer Society."