An article in the most recent issue of Newsweek magazine tackled the important subject of cancer in America and provided alarming new numbers related to the “cancer epidemic.”
According to Newsweek, more than 1,500 Americans will die each day from some form of cancer, a staggering number equivalent to “three jumbo jets crashing and killing everyone aboard” on each of the 365 days this year.
Many doctors prefer to take an “upbeat” approach to fighting cancer, said Oncologist Therese Mulvey. This concern bothers Mulvey because “some people are just not going to be cured.”
“With cancer, sometimes death is not optional,” Mulvey stated.
For patients with malignant mesothelioma, death is very much a part of their reality. The survival rate for mesothelioma sufferers is less than one 1%, and the majority of patients lose their battle with this incredibly aggressive type of cancer in less than 2 years following their diagnosis. The number of Americans losing their battle with lung-related cancers was roughly 53 out of every 100.000 individuals in 2005, and as the rates of mesothelioma cancer as a result of second-hand asbestos exposure increase, the number of lives lost to lung cancers is expected to go up.
The federal government, along with private foundations and businesses, has spent an estimated $200 billion on cancer research since the 1970s. Researchers, scientists and doctors are now focusing on the study of “the many cancers that make up a cancer” and focusing on the “pathways” that cancer cells use to propagate and extend throughout the body. Scientists are also trying to better understand how an individual cancer cell works, and are hoping to pinpoint which drug might be the most effective for which type of cancer cell in an effort to treat cancer patients with a variety of different drug combinations that will target each and every cancer cell individually.
“The hope is to match tumor type to drug,” said Roy Herbst, an Oncologist specializing in lung cancer. “We need to make the next leap, getting the right drug to the right patient.”
Researchers are also focusing on how “outside” cells (cells of the immune system and inflammatory cells, for example) communicate with the cancer cells inside a tumor.
“It’s the interaction of signals inside and outside the tumor that creates aggressiveness and metastasis,” said Robert Weinberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
For doctors specializing in the treatment of mesothelioma cancer, figuring out why this particular cancer is so aggressive could be a crucial discovery that would bring them one step closer to finding a cure.
The Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center continues to call for increased funding for cancer research and focus on new treatment methods.
The Mesothelioma & Asbestos Center is the web’s foremost resource for information related to asbestos exposure, mesothelioma cancer, mesothelioma treatment, and more. The Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center website is certified by the Health On the Net Foundation (HONcode) and is a trustworthy source of medical information on the web. Please visit http://www.maacenter.org/ for more information.
