War on Cancer

The fight towards winning the war on cancer is a national priority. Cancer is now the number two killer in the United States, and takes nearly 550,000 lives each year. In the article, "Losing the War on Cancer," from the Cancer Prevention Coalition, by Ralph W. Moss, the efforts made since 1971 when President Nixon launched America 's war on cancer is discussed at length. Nixon allocated billons of dollars towards funding resources to find a cure for cancer. Since then, it is estimated that approximately two trillion dollars are spent on conventional cancer treatments and research. Despite the huge amount of funds that have been directed towards cancer research, there has been little progress made since the efforts. In each of the 31 years since the "war on cancer" was launched, more and more Americans are suffering from cancer each year.
Despite all of this time and effort put into for research and spending, the medical community 's war on cancer has been a failure thus far. We are no closer today to understanding the underlying causes for the rapid rise of cancer rates, or to finding safe and effective treatments for patients. The incline in cancer rates has paid a great toll on America, and for years the public has been waiting for any new advances for cancer prevention. With new hypotheses of the causes of cancer everyday, society itself has to take precautions, and try to avoid dangerous environmental hazards, and live a healthier lifestyle.
In another article, "Report Finds U.S. Cancer Death Rates Declining" in CNN.com, it discusses how The National Cancer Institute recently claimed; "that there has been a decline in cancer deaths in recent years. According to the National Cancer Institute, the most important risk factor for cancer is age. Because the U.S. population is growing as well as aging, the authors of the study focused on how, even if rates of cancer remain constant, the number of people diagnosed with the disease will increase." (www.cnn.health.com). The NCI also states, on a hopeful note, that the cancer death rate has dropped in the U.S. about 1 percent a year. And that most of the declines in death rates are among lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, which account for more than half of all U.S. cancer deaths.
Opposing these possible optimistic reports with cancer, the disease has been increasing over the years. Thus while fewer people are dying, more people are having their lives profoundly disrupted by cancer. In the article, "Impact of Reporting Delay and Reporting Error on Cancer Incidence Rates and Trends" found in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, it states that cancer rates were not accurately reported in the past, which has under estimated the amount of deaths each year. For instance, they found that reporting delays for cancer can last years. They calculate that it "would take 4 to 17 years for 99% or more of the cancer causes to be reported," and that the numbers in hand at the end of the current reporting period, 2 years, amount to somewhere between 88% and 97% of final cases counted" (Clegg et at. www.ourstolenfuture.org ).
These documented delays place question marks in the past statistics of the progress in cancer decline. The delays have created an inappropriate comparison between the present day reports and the ones given in the past years. With the delay, reports discovered new change in the new trends in cancer. For example, "Prior to the adjustment, the trend analysis of female breast cancer for the years 1987 to 1998 was flat: the trend was not statistically distinguishable from any annual change. The adjustment, however, "revealed a statistically significant 0.6% annual increase in breast cancer risk during recent years. Since 1999 there has been an estimated 43,700 people who die from breast cancer" (Clegg et at www.ourstolenfuture.org pg3). Also men are suffering tremendously with prostate cancer. "Prostate cancer is one of the major causes of death in men of the Western world. There are over 317,100 newly diagnosed cases and around 41,500 prostate cancer related deaths reported in North America" (Kondo, et al., 2000). Not only was breast cancer miss-calculated, but also lung cancer and skin cancer was also reported to have leveled off, but in actuality it too has been on an incline; "by 1.2 percent a year, since 1996. Melanoma rates have been increasing by a formidable 4.1 percent a year since 1981" (www.forum.lowcarber.org pg3). Many other forms of cancer have been under estimated with prostate cancer rates, colon, and rectal cancer.
In the article, "Losing the War on Cancer" by Ralph W. Moss "The rate of colon and rectal cancer in white women has been rising 7.8 percent annually since 1996, rather than, as originally thought was less than 1 percent per year" (Clegg.pg3). With these false impressions being made of the decline of patients diagnoses with the on the war against cancer, they need to make society more aware of the false reports, and fix the delayed reporting in the recent diagnosed cases.
With the new data that we are losing the war on cancer, one should realize that with all the billions of dollars the government is spending to help fight "war on cancer," there needs to be new resources created and a turn in a different direction should be made to find better solutions and answers. For instance, "This new analysis suggests that we continue to lose, and should heighten pressure to direct new resources toward understanding the causes of cancer and toward prevention" (Clegg pg3).
With cancer as a national priority, cancer funding and research is vital.
In the article, "One Voice Against Cancer" states that, "it is up to Congress to find the resources to sustain and advance cancer research, prevention control programs and address the national nursing shortage" (www.ovaconline.org ). We need to improve our research and try new technologies at this point in time. Scientists need to look in new directions if they ever want to make progress. The cancer prevention and control programs urge congress to provide $409 million to be donated to bring better research and towards education, outreach, prevention and screening services.
With all the money going into cancer research, the question exists --- has there been any improvements or advancements made in the ward against cancer that will make a difference in the outcomes recorded? Currently there has been no knowledge of a cure for cancer but there have been many advances in technology made due to the completion of the human gene sequences.
In the article, "Winning the Cancer War," from the February 7, 200 issue of the New York Metro.com discusses the scientific advances being made for the cure of cancer. Lyden and his partner, Dr. Robert Benezra, are working on what might be called the second generation of angiogenesis research. "By deleting two genes that play a crucial role in blood- vessel formation they have produced cancer resistant mice. That is to say, when they injected some 20 million cancer cells into mice that are bred without the genes, the mice either did not develop tumors or, when they did, they didn 't metastasize" (Benezra www.nymetro.com pg1). Within this research project Dr. Benezra found, "I not only found a gene that regulated the process but one that seemed, to our delight and amazement, to regulate many different processes that occur during the development" (Benezra www.nymetro.com pg1). Tests that were made on the two similar genes confirmed his observation that they blocked the process required to make mature cells. Benezra concludes from his research project that the "findings is that the two genes appear to play a role in only the developmental stage, and after they are expressed at very low levels- except in blood vessels of tumors." Benezra claims that, "Now we have the knowledge that this gene is required in order for tumors to grow."
Furthermore, the National Cancer Institute used many different drugs to fight cancer; such as the screening program. They would put 15-20 cells in a Petri dish and look and see how many cells were killed from this experiment. The NCI screening program came after chemotherapy and has been used the same way for the past 45 years until now. With sophisticated science, and new technology, new experiments in the medical community are taking place. Vogelstein of John Hopkins says, "Battle with finding the cure for cancer is very complex so it 's going to take a great amount of time. I can 't tell you what will end cancer or what will drastically reduce the number of deaths, but my gut feeling is it won 't be any form of treatment. My money is on prevention" (Vogelstein www.nymetro.com pg3).
Looking at the past challenges with polio, as a comparative analysis, we find that there has been a huge significant improvement made in the decrease of diagnosis of polio today. With the new medicines people diagnosis with polio are much better off today than they were in the past, but they still haven 't found the cure for it. As long as an individual receives a polio vaccine, he is exempt from getting that disease. In the article, "Best Doctors", Dr. Paul Chapman at Sloan-Kettering explains what he has been working on; a vaccine for many years that works with patients who are diagnosed with small-cell lung cancer and melanoma. This vaccine has had some good results and Dr. Paul Chapman believes that the cure is more geared in gene- based therapies. "Now, by injecting DNA instead you can provide the cells with instructions on how to make the proteins themselves" (Chapman www.nymetro.com pg3).
The National Cancer Institute also states, "Understanding how genes and proteins work will lead to management of the disease and prevention long before there 's an actual cure." The new research is headed towards learning how to block signal pathways; this won 't necessarily kill cancer cells. Liotta says, "The first stage will be treating cancer as a chronic, manageable disease, much like diabetes or high blood pressure. The second sate will be to understand and affect what happens at the pre-malignant stage of cancer" (Liotta www.nymetro.com). They 're analyzing the protein pathways to try and block the growth of cancer cells. It takes a lot of time to for the protein pathways to develop inhibitors. Most likely, a year from now there will be similar updates to the ones we have now, with no drastic change, but maybe in five or six years from now, there will be new drugs and discoveries to help prevent cancer.
In conclusion, cancer has been, and continues to be, a devastating condition that has taken the lives of millions close family and friends all over the world. Over the past 31 years - people have been searching for any way possible to conquer the battle of cancer. Scientists have developed many drugs and devoted their lives to finding the cure for the disease, but still there has not been a great deal of improvement or headway made towards curing this horrid disease. With over twenty different types of cancer found to exist in the world today, everyday there seems to be another risk factor added to the roster of concerns where it is shown to may cause cancer. With the growing number of people in the United States dying every year we can only hope that the medical community can act faster to find a cure in order to save the lives of millions. This should be a top priority.

References:

1. McKenzie, Heather and Mira Crouch. 2004. "Discordant Feelings in the Lifeworld of Cancer Survivors." Health: 8(2):139-157 http://www.csa.com/ids70/gateway.php?mode=pdf&doi=10.1177%2F1363459304041067&db=socioabs-set-c&s1=e9d49486af84353753b3b7efa1c93a05&s2=c3b30de4f78d731fc3b390f667ebb4c6.

2. Beach, Wayne A. and Jeffrey S. Good. 2004. "Uncertain Family Trajectories: Interactional Consequences of Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis." Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 21(1):8-32 http://www.csa.com/ids70/gateway.php?mode=pdf&doi=10.1177%2F0265407504039839&db=socioabs-set-c&s1=e9d49486af84353753b3b7efa1c93a05&s2=e01b255c65263f9db22fdc01195b72ef.

3. Clegg, Lx, EJ Feuer, DN Midthune, MP Fay and BF Hankey. 2002 "Impact of Reporting Delay and Reporting Error on Cancer Incidence Rate and Trends." Journal of the National Cancer Institute: 94:1537-45 http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/human/cancer/2002/2002-1016cleggetal.htm 4. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/Health/05/14/cancer .statistics/ "Report finds U.S. Cancer Death Rates Declining," May 14, 2002

5. http://www.preventcancer.com/losing/ "Who is Losing the War on Cancer," by Cancer Prevention Coalition

6. http://forum.lowcarber.org/archive/index.php/t-68848
"Losing the War on Cancer," Ralph W. Moss. Weekly Cancer Decisions. Com Newsletter #59 10/30/02

7. http://nymetro.com/nymetro/health/features/1904/index3.html "Best Doctors," New York Magazine February 7, 2000

8. www.ovaconline.org "One Voice Against Cancer"

References: 1. McKenzie, Heather and Mira Crouch. 2004. "Discordant Feelings in the Lifeworld of Cancer Survivors." Health: 8(2):139-157 http://www.csa.com/ids70/gateway.php?mode=pdf&doi=10.1177%2F1363459304041067&db=socioabs-set-c&s1=e9d49486af84353753b3b7efa1c93a05&s2=c3b30de4f78d731fc3b390f667ebb4c6. 2. Beach, Wayne A. and Jeffrey S. Good. 2004. "Uncertain Family Trajectories: Interactional Consequences of Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis." Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 21(1):8-32 http://www.csa.com/ids70/gateway.php?mode=pdf&doi=10.1177%2F0265407504039839&db=socioabs-set-c&s1=e9d49486af84353753b3b7efa1c93a05&s2=e01b255c65263f9db22fdc01195b72ef. 3. Clegg, Lx, EJ Feuer, DN Midthune, MP Fay and BF Hankey. 2002 "Impact of Reporting Delay and Reporting Error on Cancer Incidence Rate and Trends." Journal of the National Cancer Institute: 94:1537-45 http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/NewScience/human/cancer/2002/2002-1016cleggetal.htm 4. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/Health/05/14/cancer .statistics/ "Report finds U.S. Cancer Death Rates Declining," May 14, 2002 5. http://www.preventcancer.com/losing/ "Who is Losing the War on Cancer," by Cancer Prevention Coalition 6. http://forum.lowcarber.org/archive/index.php/t-68848 "Losing the War on Cancer," Ralph W. Moss. Weekly Cancer Decisions. Com Newsletter #59 10/30/02 7. http://nymetro.com/nymetro/health/features/1904/index3.html "Best Doctors," New York Magazine February 7, 2000 8. www.ovaconline.org "One Voice Against Cancer"