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Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Mark Twain popularized the saying about the three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics.
The statistics frequently cited to criticize progress in the war on cancer mask the significant progress that has been made on that front, Wall Street Journal columnist Carl Bialik notes in a recent article. Overall mortality rates — showing little change in cancer death rates since the 1950s — conceal promising trends in recent decades, Bialik writes.
In the last few years, cancer mortality rates have begun to decline from the overall peaks of the 1990s. Cancer victims are dying at older ages, meaning more years of their lives are preserved, Bialik writes. And individuals born since 1925 have had lower cancer mortality rates at every age compared with individuals born before that year, reflecting reductions in smoking and medical advances in early detection of cancer.
Case in point: A recent Oxford University study identifying a signature protein in fluid around the lungs associated with mesothelioma may allow doctors to diagnose the asbestos-related cancer at an earlier stage and improve patients prognosis, the researchers say.
Progress among younger cancer patients has been particularly notable. Cancer mortality rates for Americans in their 40s born between 1955 and 1964 declined by 35 percent compared to Americans at the same age born three decades earlier.
Labels: Research News
posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:01 PM
