Washington: The American Cancer Society has reported that the mortality rate from breast cancer continue to decline over 2% annually, but black women are not seeing the equal benefits as white and Hispanic women.

The researchers group discovered that during 2001 through 2004, breast cancer diagnosis chop down by an average of 3.7% each year -- partly because women stopped having hormone replacement treatment, and to some extent because fewer got mammograms and therefore were not diagnosed.

In case of women over 50, breast cancer rates fell more aggressively, by 4.8% a year since 2001, the group said. Breast cancer rates remained firm among black women and younger women, the group said.

Dr. Harmon Eyre, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said, “While many women live in fear of breast cancer, this report shows a woman today has a lower chance of dying from breast cancer than she's had in decades.”

The report, named as “Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2007-2008,” also clears that nearly 2.4 million U.S. women alive in 2004 had a breast cancer history.

The American Cancer Society anticipates that 180,510 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in 2007, and 40,910 women and men will die from it.

In January the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a slight 2 percent drop in the number of women getting regular mammograms, which can help doctors diagnose breast cancer early, when it is the most treatable.