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Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube
Twice. My grandpa died of colon cancer very early after his diagnosis.
And my best friend's dad passed away from mesothelioma last year. All the medication managed to do was make him sick and miserable and in even more pain for the last several months of his life.
Sure early detection and tumor removal are great, the best ways to beat it. But we knew that 20 years ago, it wasn't exactly rocket science to figure it out. What have they figured out since then with all their money?
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Ok. Let's throw some numbers out there instead of just using your fantastic anecdotal evidence. US numbers, but applicable.
http://www.innovation.org/index.cfm/...Against_Cancer
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According to the American Cancer Society, the cancer death rate fell 22% for men and 14% for women between 1990 and 2007, which translated to 898,000 fewer deaths from the disease in this period.[vii]
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The tremendous value represented by this declining death rate is evident in research findings by University of Chicago economists Kevin Murphy (a MacArthur fellow) and Robert Topel. They report that reducing cancer death rates by 10% would be worth roughly $4.4 trillion in economic value to current and future generations.[viii]
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The chances that a cancer patient will live at least 5 years has increased across cancers. In 1975-79 the 5-year survival rate was less than 50%. By 2004 (the most recent data available) survival rose to 67.3%.[ix]
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Survival is increasing dramatically for many forms of cancer. Between 1975 and 2004 (the most recent data available) 5-year survival went up 19% for women with breast cancer (75.5% to 89.9%), 50% for men with prostate cancer (66.4% to 99.9%), 35% for patients with colon and rectum cancer (48.7% to 65.9%), and 46% for lung and bronchus cancer (11.5% to 16.8%).[x]
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The American Society of Clinical Oncology identified 12 major cancer treatment advances in 2011 that had the potential to reduce cancer mortality, of these, 10 are related to new medicines, better ways to use existing medicines, or newly approved medicines.[xi]
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Follow the citations at the bottom to get into it deeper.