Gains in cancer treatment cannot continue without help

By Ira Zunin

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 23, 2013

~~<p>No one wants to hear the word "cancer" while sitting in a doctor's office. Still, cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in our country, behind heart disease. According to the National Cancer Institute and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,638,910 new cancer cases were estimated to occur in 2012, resulting in 577,190 deaths. Understandably, a diagnosis of cancer is a frightening prospect for patients and their loved ones.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the statistics are improving. During the past decade, cancer death rates have declined by more than 1 percent per year in men and women of almost every race and ethnic group. Death rates continue to decline for lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer. Improvement in lung cancer outcomes accounts for almost 40 percent of the total decline in men, and breast cancer accounts for 34 percent of the total decline in women. In many instances cancer is no longer the death sentence it once was.</p>
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No one wants to hear the word "cancer" while sitting in a doctor's office. Still, cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in our country, behind heart disease. According to the National Cancer Institute and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,638,910 new cancer cases were estimated to occur in 2012, resulting in 577,190 deaths. Understandably, a diagnosis of cancer is a frightening prospect for patients and their loved ones.

Fortunately, the statistics are improving. During the past decade, cancer death rates have declined by more than 1 percent per year in men and women of almost every race and ethnic group. Death rates continue to decline for lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer. Improvement in lung cancer outcomes accounts for almost 40 percent of the total decline in men, and breast cancer accounts for 34 percent of the total decline in women. In many instances cancer is no longer the death sentence it once was. Login for more...