Did Rachel Carson's prediction of a cancer epidemic come to pass? This graph of cancer deaths (from the American Cancer Society webpage) suggests that the only cancer epidemic for men was lung cancer, and that peaked in 1990. The data for females looks similar, with all cancer deaths declining except for lung cancer. But this is deaths. Perhaps we are just getting better at treatment? Still, almost 1.5 million Americans were diagnosed with new cases of cancer in 2009.