Introduction
Smoking is the nation's single, greatest cause of cancer. Public health experts say cancer will kill around half of current smokers if they continue to smoke, with up to 40 percent of the deaths occurring in middle age. (Getty Images/Mike Simons)
|
Deaths from cancer and new cancer cases have decreased slightly in the past few years. It's the first time the statistics have declined over an extended period and the best piece of news yet to come out of the nation's 38-year-old "war on cancer." Despite scientists' early optimism that the discovery of an actual cancer cure was imminent, most recent gains have come instead from earlier detection and cancer-prevention achievements, especially lower smoking rates. Those gains have prompted calls for a shift in federal cancer programs toward prevention and detection and away from research, which has been funded much more generously. Prevention proponents say focusing more on prevention and detection makes sense because cancer biology now demonstrates that individuals' cancers vary so widely and contain so many cell mutations that new, widely effective treatments will be even harder to come by than previously expected.
|
|
|
 |
Jan. 22, 2016 |
Fighting Cancer |
 |
Jan. 16, 2009 |
Preventing Cancer |
 |
Sep. 11, 1998 |
Cancer Treatments |
 |
Jun. 27, 1997 |
Breast Cancer |
 |
Aug. 25, 1995 |
Advances in Cancer Research |
 |
Jan. 29, 1982 |
New Cancer Treatments |
 |
Aug. 05, 1977 |
Strategies for Controlling Cancer |
 |
Aug. 16, 1974 |
Quest for Cancer Control |
 |
Mar. 24, 1967 |
Cancer Research Progress |
 |
May 12, 1951 |
Control of Cancer |
| | |
|