WASHINGTON — For the first time, women's death rates from lung cancer are dropping, possibly a turning point in the smoking-fueled epidemic. 

It's a small decline, says the nation's annual report on cancer — just under 1 percent a year. And lung cancer remains the nation's, and the world's, leading cancer killer. But the long-anticipated drop — coming more than a decade after a similar decline began in U.S. men — is a hopeful sign.

"It looks like we've turned the corner," said Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society, who co-authored Thursday's report. "We think this downward trend is real, and we think it will continue."

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