Cancer is now the leading cause of death in wealthy countries. Researchers say cancer has replaced heart disease as the top killer in the industrial world. If the trend continues, they predict cancer could become the leading cause of worldwide later in this century. However, the news is not that cancer deaths are increasing, but that deaths from cardiovascular disease are decreasing. Cardiovascular disease, or CVD, is a group of medical conditions that include heart failure, heart attack, and stroke. It remains the leading cause of death among middle-aged adults worldwide. But when you only look at deaths in industrial economies, that is not the case. In those countries, the new report shows that cancer now kills two times as many people as cardiovascular disease. The findings were published in The Lancet, and presented at the recent European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris.