There are many who say that we are losing the war on cancer. This article (it is from Fortune, reproduced in PDF format on the Aperio blog), offers depressing information. It says (in part)
- The age-adjusted percentage of Americans dying from cancer is the same now as it was in the 1970's... and the 1950's
- That 33 years ago, half of all cancer patients survived 5 years or more following diagnosis. That figure has climbed, but to only 63%
- Most of the progress that has been made has been due to early identification of the disease
- American spending (all public and identifiable private sources) on cancer research amounts to $200 billion since 1971
- The cancer research community has published 1.56 million papers just on signaling pathways and its related genes
And yet... for all the article's accounts of false starts, corporate greed and bureaucratic fumbling, a great body of knowledge has been accumulated. A lot of wrong paths have been followed--but if they are identified and no more time and effort is wasted on them, it means something. Those with many years of experience in the field are starting to talk about drug cocktail approaches that target both the tumor and the environment it lives in. This is after watching AIDS treatment make spectacular rapid progress while cancer treatment seemed stalled. There is talk about imitating strategies that were successful in the rapid reduction of heart attacks and strokes, as well. And again, a lot of basic research has been done.
Knowledge has been created. Outcomes have not matched this creation. Politics and corporate policy have interfered. But it looks... possible... that when the politics and corporate policy are finally removed, that progress can jump and outcomes catch up. One hopes.
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