Washington, Mar 11 (IANS): A total of 602,350 people died of cancer in the US in 2020, but fatality rates due to the disease have continued to drop in the country, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Cancer remained the second leading cause of death in 2020, after heart diseases, while Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death, Xinhua news agency quoted the CDC as saying in its latest update on Thursday.

Among the 602,350 cancer deaths in the US, 284,619 were females and 317,731 males, according to the CDC data.

Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 23 per cent of all deaths.

Other common types were cancers of the colon and rectum, pancreas, female breast, prostate, and liver and intrahepatic bile duct, according to the CDC.

In the past 20 years from 2001 to 2020, cancer death rates went down 27 per cent, from 196.5 to 144.1 deaths per 100,000 population.