Lung cancer death rates among women in the United States fell for the first time in four decades, U.S. cancer experts said on Thursday.

According to an annual report on cancer by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and others, the lag reflects smoking trends among women, whose rate of smoking peaked later in the last century than U.S. men, whose rates started declining the past decade.

“It’s about time. When you look at the data, for years the biggest concern has always been the mortality rate for women with lung cancer. That number had just kept steadily increasing,” Dr. Edward Kim of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was not involved with the report, said in a telephone interview.

“I think it is a reflection that finally we are beginning to make a bit of headway,” he added.

Lung cancer deaths among women fell about 1 percent per year between 2003 and 2007, reflecting an overall continued decline in cancer rates and deaths.

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