quote by Brawley

[Guest guest]

Dr Brawley believes that the current drop in incidence may be because fewer people are being screened. Brings up the issue that improvements in statistics for incidence may not be related in all cases to an actual reduction in cancer cases. I wonder what the economy and loss of health insurance or increase in copays will play in this dynamic? Thank you Carol for the reference.

Kathy

This is what was in the Washington Post on 11/27/08:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112501510.html

"It is a significant milestone," said Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society, which produces the report with the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries.

The drop in new cancer diagnoses has been driven largely by declines in many of the leading forms of cancer: lung, prostate and colorectal cancer in men, and breast and colorectal cancer in women.The analysis found that the overall incidence of cancer began inching down in 1999, but not until the data for 2005 were analyzed was it clear that a long-term decline was underway.

"The take-home message is that many of the things we've been telling people to do to be healthy have finally reached the point where we can say that they are working," Brawley said. "These things are really starting to pay off."

Brawley and others cautioned, however, that part of the reduction could be the result of fewer people getting screened for prostate and breast cancers. In addition, the rates at which many other types of cancer are being diagnosed are still increasing, he said, and overall far too many Americans are still getting and dying from cancer.