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Cancer deaths have also continued a decline that began in the early 1990s, meaning that for the first time both trend lines are dropping.

"It is a significant milestone," said Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, which produces the report with the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

The drop in new cancer diagnoses has been driven largely by declines in many of the leading forms of cancer: lung, prostate and colorectal cancer in men, and breast and colorectal cancer in women.

The analysis found that the overall incidence of cancer began inching down in 1999, but not until the data for 2005 were analyzed was it clear that a long-term decline was underway.

"The take-home message is that many of the things we've been telling people to do to be healthy have finally reached the point where we can say that they are working," Brawley said. "These things are really starting to pay off."

Brawley and others cautioned, however, that part of the reduction could be the result of fewer people getting screened for prostate and breast cancers. In addition, the rates at which many other types of cancer are being diagnosed are still increasing, he said, and overall far too many Americans are still getting and dying from cancer.

Cancer is still being diagnosed in about 1.4 million Americans each year, and 560,000 die from it.

"We still have a lot to do," Brawley said. "If you look at the data, it's clear that we could still do much better -- much, much better."

Some experts said the drop was not surprising, noting that it was primarily the result of a fall in lung cancer because of declines in smoking that occurred decades ago. They criticized the ongoing focus on detecting and treating cancer and called for more focus on prevention.

"The whole cancer establishment has been focused on treatment, which has not been terribly productive," said John C. Bailar III, who studies cancer trends at the National Academy of Sciences. "I think what people should conclude from this is we ought to be putting most of our resources where we know there has been progress, almost in spite of what we've done, and stop this single-minded focus on treatment."

Bailar and others argue that research should emphasize identifying the underlying causes of cancer, such as environmental exposures, to prevent it from occurring in the first place.

New U.S. data showed a continuing decline in both consumer and business spending -- the dynamic that prompted the Federal Reserve and Treasury to announce on Tuesday an $800 billion plan to lower home loan mortgage rates and ensure households and small businesses have access to adequate credit. The European Commission today proposed its own $260 billion plan to rekindle growth, while China slashed a benchmark interest rate by the most since the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s.

In the United States, the Commerce Department said that orders for durable goods fell a quicker-than-expected 6.2 percent in October. Excluding volatile aircraft and defense purchases, capital investment by business was down 4 percent compared with the month before. Over the past three months, capital investment has fallen at a nearly 33 percent annualized rate, according to an analysis by the High Frequency Economics consulting firm -- a figure the company's chief U.S. economist, Ian Shepherdson, termed "terrifying."

Personal spending, meanwhile, dropped 1 percent in October compared with the month before -- the steepest one month decline since the Sept. 2001 terrorist attacks. A drop in the rate of inflation, helped by falling energy prices, put more money in people's pockets: Real disposable personal income, the amount of earnings left after taxes and adjusted for inflation, increased by 1 percent in October.

But the extra money went into savings as households continued to retrench. Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and flagging demand could deepen the downturn that is already underway.

With credit markets still tight, financial companies ailing and the housing market in collapse, world governments have increasingly turned attention to the impact rising joblessness, stagnant incomes and falling consumer demand are having on the global economy. The loss of trillions of dollars in wealth and income over the past year -- from falling stock markets, declining homes prices and lost jobs -- has prompted households and businesses to pull back on spending, a fact felt in both the developed world and export-dependent developing nations such as China.

In Brussels today, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced a plan to commit the equivalent of 1.5 percent of Europe's combined economic output to a broad set of programs designed to stimulate demand, create jobs, rebuild infrastructure and spur innovation.

The 200 billion Euro program -- about $260 billion at today's exchange rate -- would be funded partly by individual nations and partly through central institutions such as the European Investment Bank.

While the commission -- the executive branch of the European Union -- cannot compel states to join the effort, Barroso said in a news conference he expected broad agreement on the idea that Europe must soon commit to a large public investment in economic growth.

Some nations, notably Germany, have proposed their own stimulus programs, and those would be folded into the overall amount, Barroso said. But those individual efforts have not yet been implemented and even as proposed don't go far enough, he said. Germany's plan to commit about $40 billion to economic stimulus equates to just about 1 percent of its gross domestic product, not the 1.5 percent that the commission feels is needed to meaningfully address the current slowdown.