Doctors fighting on the front lines against cancer are cautiously enthusiastic about an American Cancer Society report showing that the tide of cancer deaths may be turning aftertwo years of declines in mortality.
“There?s been progress in the last few years in cancer, with more extensive therapy,” said Dr. Armando Sardi, oncologist with Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. “There are people living with cancer, and the cancer has become controlled.”
The report from the American Cancer Society ? appearing in the January/February edition of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians ? showed 3,014 fewer Americans died of cancer in 2004 than in 2003. In Maryland, there were 105 fewer deaths during the same period.
Innovations such as targeted therapy are easier on patients because they do less damage to healthy tissue. Other developments including less-invasive surgery, faster and better tests to detect cancer earlier and education have also meant more people are getting treated before tumors become fatal.
It does not mean fewer people are getting diagnosed with the disease that once was a death sentence, said Sardi, who is the head of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Mercy.
In fact, better detection might mean diagnoses are up. And while he acknowledged great gains in breast, lung and some other cancers, Sardi said, “We have along way to go. There are lots of cancers where we have not made any progress.”
Pancreatic cancer, adrenal cancer and leukemia are still fatal diseases, he said, and doctors do not have good tests to detect them early or therapies to eliminate them.
The cancer society report appeared to show an accelerating drop in cancer deaths in 2004, and the second straight year of declines.
That makes 2004 only the second year since the 1930s to show a decline in total cancer deaths in the U.S., according to the report. Cancer deaths had dropped a smaller amount (a decline of 369 deaths) from 2002 to 2003.
“Everyone involved in the fight against cancer should be proud of this remarkable achievement,” said American Cancer Society Chief Executive Officer John Seffrin, in a statement. “The hard work toward preventing cancer, catching it early and making treatment more effective is paying dramatic, lifesaving dividends,” Seffrin said.
