Half Of U.S. Cancer Cases Are Preventable
Mar-30-2012

More than half a million people died from cancer in the U.S. in 2011. We have many astounding advances in medicine to thank for that number not being higher. But that grim figure could also be a lot lower even without a breakthrough drug for breast or lung cancer.
In fact, more than 280,000 of those lives could have been spared by preventing the disease in the first place-all via behavioral and research changes based on scientific discoveries that have been made already, according to a new review article published online March 28 in Science Translational Medicine. This statistic is not new, the researchers pointed out, but quibbling over details of exactly how many cases of-or deaths from-each form of cancer are due to preventable risk factors, the researchers noted, has delayed investment in mitigating the risks that researchers already know about, the authors argued.
"We actually have an enormous amount of data about the causes and preventability of cancer," Graham Colditz, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement. "It's time we made an investment in implementing what we know."
Scientists know, for instance, that more exercise and less alcohol intake can lower the risk for breast cancer and that quitting smoking drastically reduces the risk for lung cancer. We also know that vaccines for HPV and hepatitis can reduce liver and cervical cancers by more than half and that aspirin can reduce overall cancer death by some 20 percent. Getting these interventions to the right people, however, is easier said than done.

Read the rest of the article by clicking the link below.

Visit Website

Posted by Ken at 12:00 AM - Link to this entry  |  Share this entry  |  Print