News/Commentary

Cancer is many diseases but, in general, is associated with aging. Risks go up with time.

In a study of cancer deaths, taking age into account, cancer deaths declined among men by 21% since 1990. For women, cancer deaths are down 12% since 1991.

That is significant progress but there remains significantly more work to do. The recent debates over prostate and mammogram screenings are proof of that. While young people can have prostate or breast cancer, the majority of cases appear as people get older. The furious back-and-forth about the use of screenings which can produce “false positives” was a place-holder for one problem.  Patients and advocacy groups have been infuriated by this and justifiably so. Patients are told to take responsibility for their health, to have screenings as indicated for their own age group. Now, as costs soar and as the measurement of how inadequate some tests are, screenings are under close scrutiny which you should read to mean “cost too much.”

As noted here before, when the tools—in this case, the tests—are not good enough and everyone knows it, demand better tools.

Don’t fight over whether it makes sense to use the only ones you have, which is the fight which has been going on for some time now. Poor tests may lead to patients being shocked when they hear they have a cancer which further screening shows that they don’t. Poor tests lead to more testing, which raises health care costs. None of these is desirable but nothing is more undesirable than doing nothing.

American Cancer took the lead last week on making a call for an improved prostate cancer test. Granted, that rests on researchers finding a way to do that. The lack of a better test is not negligence. It is a problem yet to be solved.

Let’s hope that American Cancer keeps nipping at the heels of everyone whose heels need nipping.

We need screenings. We need better tests. That will lead to preventing even more deaths.

Medpage Today

“Cancer is not going away, but there are signs that it is not the killer of 20 years ago.

“That conclusion emerged from the latest analysis of data collected by the American Cancer Society, which found that “age-standardized” cancer deaths among men declined by 21% from 1990, while the rate among women declined by 12% from 1991 to 2006. (Emphasis added)

“Ahmedin Jemal, PhD, of the American Cancer Society, and colleagues reported the results of their analysis in the open access journal PLoS One.

“The authors attributed the overall decline to a number of factors including “reductions in tobacco use, increased screening allowing early detection of several cancers, and modest to large improvements in treatment for specific cancers.“ (Emphasis added)

Source: Medpage Today, March 10, 2010

Citation: PLoS One, March, 2010 (Complete citation not located)