HUGE INCREASE IN CANCER PREDICTED

A new study from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has just appeared in the Journal of ClinicalOncology.[1]

It contains the prediction of a 67% increase in the diagnosis of cancer in the age group 65 and older in the next 20 years. In addition, a 99% increase is expected in minorities.

What is interesting about this paper is that the major concern discussed is the potential for a crisis in the ability to treat all these patients. The need emphasized is for more facilities and oncologists and new treatments.

If one looks for a discussion of prevention, it is to be found buried in a paragraph dealing with the need to train more physicians in oncology-related specialties. The one sentence devoted to prevention mentions vaccination for hepatitis B and human papilloma virus, chemoprevention with tamoxifen and raloxifene, reducing tobacco and alcohol use, and the removal of pre-malignant lesions such as colonic polyps.

Evidently the authors and the editor of the journal do not consider as important the recent study by scientists at the American Institute for Cancer research and the World Cancer Research Fundwhich found that more than 34% of all cancer cases in the U.S. could be prevented simply by eating better, exercising more and maintaining healthier weights.

In terms of individual sites, it was found that these changes could prevent as many as 38% of breast cancer cases and 45% of bowel cancers in the U.S.

But the practice of oncology is like a repair shop (although with a strikingly lower success rate) where the focus is not on prevention of the problems they make their living attempting to fix.

However, this new study should motivate individuals to become more concerned with cancer prevention – otherwise the future is alarming.

REFERENCE:
(1) Smith BD, Smith GL, Hurria A, Hortobagyi GN, Buchholz TA. Future of Cancer Incidence in the United States:Burdens Upon an Aging, Changing Nation. J Clin Oncol 2009 April 29.

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