Cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That total is in stark contrast to the situation at the start of this century, when only two states — Alaska and Minnesota — lost more people to cancer than heart disease.
And it’s a huge departure from the situation in the 1950s, when the number of heart disease deaths was 2 1/2 times bigger than the number of cancer fatalities.