Half Of Cancer Deaths Preventable: Report

According to a 2000 survey, Americans' worst fear is a cancer diagnosis. One out of every three women and one out of every two men will be diagnosed with cancer in her or his lifetime.

It's against this backdrop that the American Association for Cancer Research, which bills itself as the world's largest cancer research organization, posed the question: Where do we stand in the war against cancer?

The results, published in a new progress report urging Congress to increase funding for cancer research, are complex.

According to the report's authors, in 2010, more than 570,000 people died of cancer in the United States. There are also currently more than 12 million cancer survivors, and mortality rates have declined steadily since 1990.

"Personally, I think it's a remarkably hopeful time," said Dr. Judy Garber, director of the Center for Cancer Genetics and Prevention at Dana-Farber and president of the AACR.

"The vast majority of things I do for patients now are based on research done in labs very recently," she continued. "The pace of discovery and translation have both accelerated."

One key, according to the 84-page report, has been researchers learning that cancer is not a single disease, but more than 200 different ones. They also now better understand the basic biology of cancer, including the crucial role gene mutations play.

The AACR's new progress report also highlights the great strides that have been made in drug research, particularly in the development of drugs that target tumor cells, with fewer side effects, that the report states are "much less toxic."

Prevention and public health efforts have also been important, the authors write.

Reduced smoking has saved lives that would have been lost to cancer -- not only lung, but also 17 other types directly related to tobacco use. Yet the report also finds that at least half of all cancers and cancer deaths could be prevented by changing personal behavior, including things like improving diet and avoiding a sedentary lifestyle.

Indeed, in an interview with the HuffPost, Garber called for continued public health efforts to help highlight the role that prevention can play in combatting cancer, as well those aimed at promoting and improving early detection.

"This is a solvable set of diseases," she said, saying that increased funding for cancer and biomedical research is essential. The report recommended Congress increase the National Institute of Health and National Cancer Institute's annual budgets by at least 5 percent beyond the biomedical industry's inflation rate. "We are poised on a threshold."

Comments

[Glenn Shank]

03:20 PM on 10/27/2011

ugh. the cancer industry has to be one of the biggest jokes everrrrr

[jojojo]

11:21 AM on 09/30/2011

Prostate cancer strikes more often than breast cancer, kills about as many, yet receives less then 50% as much research funding. There wasn't even a Prostate Cancer Awareness Month until a President Obama created one.

[Vegan Raw Food]

11:04 AM on 09/23/2011

I eat a vegan raw food diet. Get your vegetables in all the colors of the rainbow. No smoking, drinking or drugs for me.
http://www.veganrawfood.net/

[Trittydi]

03:39 AM on 09/22/2011

Vitamin D3 deficiency has been linked to onset of 87% of all cancers. In addition - it has been linked to nearly every chronic ailment that we struggle with, including heart disease, diabetes types I and II, MS, depressions, schizophrenia, alzheimers, allergies, autism - and more.

For cancer:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/cancer/

Other health conditions:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/

If you want to understand why VD3 - which is a powerful and unique steroid hormone system, not a vitamin - has remarkable implications for nearly every chronic disease that plagues us - then this is a great read:
http://www.wholefoodsmagazineonline.com/columns/vitamin-connection/new-research-vitamin-d-part-1-vitamin-d-unique
*

[longnow]

01:19 PM on 09/21/2011

Cancer is actually 200 different diseases?
How many different types of cancer are there?
Of each individual type how many diseases conspire to cause it?
Now they are thinking of using modified HIV to kill cancer cells.

[Trittydi]

03:40 AM on 09/22/2011

Or just take vitamin D3:

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/cancer/
*

[GOODDOC1]

09:43 PM on 09/20/2011

Continued:

For those who are interested in a healthy diet, contact a Registered Dietitian. I'm not aware of any national registration board for Nutritionists, so there could be people out there claming to be one who have no idea what they're talking about. RD's must have completed an approved course of study, pass a national exam, and keep current in the subject matter in order to remain registered. You can check with your local hospital to find one.


For those who are claiming that there is a giant "conspiracy" NOT to cure cancer, please think. Do you really think that none of the researchers invollved have a relative with some form of cancer? Or that none of THEM have a form of cancer? Don't you think that might be an impetus to find a cure? Please!

If this post has helped anyone, it has been worth it. Good luck to you all.

[Trittydi]

03:41 AM on 09/22/2011

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/cancer/
*

[GOODDOC1]

09:33 PM on 09/20/2011

As a former Emergency Physician who is terminally ill, I have to comment on some of the posts here today. First of all, the term "cancer" covers a myriad of disease processes. There is no one CANCER. Treatment is different for each kind. Anyone who says there is a cure for all cancer is seriously deluded. Don't you think I would be using it if there were? I've done all the research possible on this subject. SOME cancers are cureable -- some with Surgery, some with Chemo, some with a combination of those and/or Radiation. I've never found anything in the scientific research I've read that shows that diet/lifestyle/environmental factors can CURE any cancer once it has been diagnosed. All of those play into the CAUSES of cancers, along with genetics. But there are many, many cancers which spring up with no known risk factors. Some people here sound like they have been treated horrendously by their providers. For that, I apologise, and would recommend you make complaints to your State Medical Board. If it's happening now, RUN -- don't walk -- to a new provider. To those having problems affording mammograms or Pap smears, check on the BCHC program (Breast Cervical Health Care Program) They will pay for mammograms and Pap smears for those who qualify. For those having problems paying for meds, google the PPARx program. They will get you in touch with the manufactuers, who can provide the meds for free.

[RhiannonRings]

11:11 PM on 09/20/2011

My 62 y.o. sister was the picture of health. Vegetarian, non-smoker, non-drinker, avid marathon runner, low cholesterol and excellent bp. She suddenly lost weight and was gone in a month: pancreatic cancer. We are still shocked a year later.

[cyndinca]

09:28 PM on 09/20/2011

One of the things I've learned is that most regular hospitals lack the skill & the equipment to test & treat cancer. A regular hospital is designed to treat a lot of various things & that's where their budget goes. You need to go to a hospital that specializes in cancer.

When my husband was sick, a case worker brought over a list of cancer treatment centers for us to call. I said expressed concern that our HMO wouldn't cover it (we had Kaiser) & she said it doesnt matter. If you can submit proof that one of these institutions can better help your husband & that Kaiser lacks the abilities they have, your insurance is required by law to cover his care that that facility.

Unfortunately, we received this news too late but my advice would be to seek out a specialist as soon as you have a cancer diagnosis because whereas your GP may tell you it's hopeless, you may get a different answer elsewhere.

[JudiKoerner]

08:16 PM on 09/20/2011

If people would get off the meat and dairy, they would have extremelyl low risk of developing cancer. Everyone has cancer cells in their body. Meat has a high link with cancer, and so does the casein in ALL dairy products! Research clearly documents the link between both of these! Casein was put into a petri dish with one cancer cell, and that cancer cell proliferated into millions of more cancer cells. DAIRY WILL ACTIVATE THE CANCER CELLS IN YOUR BODY! Anyone wanting more information on this should read the book, The China Study. It will provide all the information you need on the this! It is your health and your life! Please read this book!

[No death panels]

08:00 AM on 09/21/2011

How do people first start to believe this kind of stuff is beyond me.

[sophia dolche]

01:04 AM on 09/24/2011

This true.....they pasteurize it and its not food anymore. MY Mom had a tumor the size of a grapefruit for many years till it was pressing on her organs and causing alot of other problems.. She did alternative food program where she ate all this raw food for 3 years and it dissapeared .....But she ruined her brain in the process because she was suppose to take certain supplements and consume more fats which she wouldn't ......it should have only been done for a few years but she got so religious about it... Then she became obsessed about candida and yeast and sugar and stopped eating fruit. The alternatives therapists, nutritionists and naturopaths should be the first professionals to see when one gets sick, and then when all else fails, that's when a person relies on doctors....ONLY for chronic emergencies.

[JudiKoerner]

02:06 PM on 11/01/2011

This is to reply to "No death panels," since he is too much of a coward to allow people to respond to his posts or responses to other people. People "start to believe this stuff" by doing what in the educated world we call research. It does not come by opinion, but it comes through many intelligent sources of individuals, who come together and find results to their research and inquiry about why things happen. That is where this "stuff" that I posted resulted from. You may find most of it through what is now being promoted as healthful eating through changes that the medical community is slowly making, through their previous errors in advice that was given, through the blood tests and lab results of ignorant people like you who do not believe it and who then wind up in medical institutions with high blood pressure, cancers of all kinds, diabetes, strokes, etc. You may also read about much of this in books, such as "The China Study." It is also being promoted through the media by many celebrities who have gone vegan, as well as by past presidential figures who have done so. You may view some of this in movies such as "Forks Over Knives." It all depends on how ignorant you choose to remain, or how educated and responsible you want to be for your own health and the health of your children if you have any.

[cyndinca]

08:11 PM on 09/20/2011

I lost my husband to cancer in April 2009. I feel he was literally dismissed & misdiagnosed to death.

Nov 08 he went to his GP with digestive problems & pain in his abdomen, was given a complete
physical & told "you're completely healthy". Went back again because "something's just not right" & was told "there's nothing wrong with you". His condition worsened & he went back again. Was told "cut the red meat out of your diet" so he did. When that didnt work he was told "you may have an ulcer, drink this stuff for 1 month" so he did.
By this time he was growing increasingly tired, rapidly losing weight & could no longer clear his bowels. Went back, pointed to his stomach & said "The pain is here.. Look here-->". They had him drink barium & a blockage was discovered. "Come back in a week for needle biopsy". Waited another week beyond that for the lab results: Gallbladder cancer, but were told "It's contained & 100% curable with an operation. Come back in a week & see an oncologist to discuss surgery options" & was then told "there's a 22cm mass on your liver, cancer is inoperable & terminal. You have weeks to 2 mos to live, possibly a year with chemo" Got a 2nd opinion -same answer.
The worst part was hearing that he'd probably only had his cancer about 2 months.
It took them much longer than that to take his symptoms seriously.

[LisaLisa1234]

01:11 PM on 09/21/2011

I am so sorry for your loss, especially the anger you must feel at your husband's treatment. I wish you peace.

[lklex]

07:18 PM on 09/20/2011

Catherine Pearson writes: "One out of every three women and one out of every two men will be diagnosed with cancer in her or his lifetime." The order she has chosen for revealing those statistics is troubling, as it tends to misplace the emphasis and distort reality. She should have written that "one out of every two men and one out of every three women will be diagnosed with cancer in his or her lifetime." In reality, although far too infrequently recognized by the news media and despite the pink ribbons that will surely be ubiquitous next month, CANCER IS PRIMARILY A MEN'S DISEASE. Male Americans have long suffered from a higher cancer incidence rate and a much higher overall age-adjusted cancer mortality rate compared to their female counterparts. Indeed, male residents in my state, a large northeastern state, have a staggering nearly 50% higher age-adjusted death rate from cancer compared to female residents. Moreover, as was confirmed by an NCI study, the results of which were published earlier this summer, men who are diagnosed with cancer are more likely to die from the disease than are women who are diagnosed with cancer. This month, September, is National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Annually, more men die from prostate cancer than women die from all gynecologic cancers combined. Yet, where are the blue ribbons? Nowhere to be seen on AOL/HuffPost.

[coolmama]

06:41 PM on 09/20/2011

I'm in chemo (perpetually I think) and for years I've gotten shots to boost my red and/or white cells counts. White for bone marrow, red to combat anemia. I suddenly got extremely tired after chemo but wasn't approached for a shot so and assumed I didn't need any, but my nurse told me I did need shots, but me and every other patient were anemic because insurances lowered the level of red/white counts you had before they would pay. So all of us are dog tired with anemia and can't get shots (unless we want to pay, I am not kidding, $6,000 for the white or $4,800 for the red). A few weeks later I had a vist and my doc said, "You are very anemic but I don't like to give shots anymore". I like my doc, a lot, but I wanted to complete his sentence with ".. ever since inusrance won't pay". It's all about money.

[Chad Wheeler]

07:07 PM on 09/20/2011

Have you looked into the possibility of copay assistance from either the drug manufacturer or someplace like the Chronic Disease Fund? There are others, too.

[Carol Denham]

07:53 PM on 09/20/2011

I am so sorry to hear of your situation, You have helped me with my decision about chemo that will follow my double mastectomy. Bad enough to have to pay $600 copay for each Herceptin infusion, but I never thought of the WBC, RBC, and Plt count limits and associated fees. It seems never-ending and the sky is the limit for copays and fees. Thanks for helping me to decide not to do it. It is cruel and abusive to make us go through this "begging" for insurance payments.

[mountainez]

06:22 PM on 09/20/2011

As uual if you can't cure it, blame it on the patient.

[JudiKoerner]

08:18 PM on 09/20/2011

It can be cured! These industries don't want people to know this! Read my post above about the link between dairy and cancer! Everyone should get off of dairy! Read the book, The China Study! It is imperative to your health and your life!

[TrueD]

08:38 PM on 09/20/2011

There is also quite a bit for free online by the author, Colin Campbell, of the China Study.

[Trittydi]

03:50 AM on 09/22/2011

Do some reading at this site:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/cancer/
*

[wclark3350]

06:21 PM on 09/20/2011

My wife is a double survivor of cancer because she did everything she was told to do by her doctors. Her first cancer (uterine) was 32 years ago, and the second (breast) was six years ago.

[ThisAlreadyHappened]

06:40 PM on 09/20/2011

What a terrible thing to have to go through once let alone twice. My aunt also survived cancer only to have it come back many years later. The second time it got the best of her.

[prosymom]

05:21 PM on 09/20/2011

the most important factor in cancer survivability is early detection, especially with colon cancer (my dad survived 30+ years after colon cancer surgery) and breast cancer--women should get mammograms at 40 even if they have to pay for them--it's cheaper than getting cancer treatments.

[birdiesbout]

05:49 PM on 09/20/2011

I completely agree. It's also very important to have a doctor who will LISTEN when you tell them something isn't right. We lost a very dear friend because of a doctor who refused to test her. She kept telling the doc that she couldn't breathe-the doc's stock reply was, "you need to lose weight" (which honestly, my friend did need) but after 1 1/2 years of not being able to breathe properly, my friend was hospitalized with stage 4 lung cancer-none smoker. She died within the month. This stupid doctor is too ashamed to even look us in the eye when we see her out someplace. She KNOWS there should have been testing done and SHE refused to do it. My poor friend was naive enough to think that doctors actually know what they're talking about all the time.