Paul Hildwin has spent 28 years fighting for his life, waiting between cancer treatments for the state to acknowledge decade-old DNA evidence
Paul Hildwin is pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of Florida Department of Corrections. From his cell on Florida's Death Row, Paul Hildwin has spent 28 years fighting for his life, waiting between cancer treatments for the state to acknowledge decade-old DNA evidence supporting his claims of innocence. REUTERS/Florida Department of Corrections/Handout via Reuters (UNITED STATES - Tags: CRIME LAW HEADSHOT) Reuters

Data from Cancer Research UK shows that the death rates for breast, bowel, lung and prostate cancer have fallen by a third in the last two decades.

Since the 1990s, the combined death rates of the four main cancers have fallen by a massive 30 per cent. In comparison to the figures of the periods from 1991 to 1993 and 2010 to 2012, the expected death rate for every 100,000 people was at 146 for the former period and 102 in the latter.

In the last 20 years, the death rates of breast, bowel, lung and prostate cancer have fallen by 38 per cent, 34 per cent, 27 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.

Research is said to have had a powerful impact in reducing the mortality rate of the cancers, said Cancer Research UK. It added that through routine screening, there has been an improvement in detecting breast and bowel cancer, in addition to specialist care and effective treatments, and in the case of prostate cancer, earlier diagnosis and improvement in treatment has helped reduce death rates.

While talking about lung cancer, they said that though there has been a decrease in the death rate, there is little scope for improvement for the patients of this kind of cancer. Early diagnosis and trials for improvements in treatments are being looked at as options to reduce the mortality rate.

According to the data by the charity, in the case of cancers like liver, pancreatic, melanoma, oral and some kinds of digestive cancers, the mortality rates have taken a hike.

The chief executive of Cancer Research UK, Harpal Kumar, explained that research has helped save many lives of those suffering from cancer and that UK is a world leafer in cancer research. He continued that the death rate for the four main cancers have fallen but in other cancers, there has been no or very less improvement.