CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Vol 13, 86-91, Copyright
© 1963 by American Cancer Society
Scope and Trends of Cancer in the United States
Lester Breslow M.D.1
1 Chief of the Division of Preventive Medical Services, California State Department of Public Health, Berkeley, California.
In summary, cancer takes the lives of more than 250,000 persons in the United States each year. About one seventh of these deaths are due to lung cancer and, if present rates continue, the proportion due to lung cancer will increase within the next decade to one-fourth of all cancer deaths.
Among women, the death rate from cancer has definitely turned downward. The chance that a woman with cancer will live at least five years is now almost 50 per cent of the expectancy for a woman without cancer. The outlook is steadily improving due, in large part, to diagnosis of a higher proportion of cases in the localized stage. Compared to a woman without cancer, the woman with localized cancer has a three-out-of-four chance of passing the five-year mark.
The cancer death rate is still increasing among men, principally because of the rise of lung cancer. While improvement in medical care, including earlier diagnosis, has led to better prognosis for some sites of cancer in men, the fact remains that the relative five-year survival rate of male patients with cancer is only two-thirds as high as that of females. This is due, in part, to the site-distribution of the disease in the two sexes.
Unless research produces some major advances not yet foreseen, cancer will continue to be a major health problem during the rest of the twentieth century. If present trends continue, about 60,000,000 persons now living in the United States will have cancer and 30,000,000 will die from it.
Reduction of this death toll is possible, depending on the vigor with which we: (1) Conduct research, including epidemiological research, on the nature of cancer, its causes and means of treatment; (2) improve the general conditions of life in our country; (3) reduce those factors already identified as causing cancer, particularly cigarette smoking; and, (4) apply present knowledge of cancer to diagnosis and treatment, especially to persons with low incomes who have the highest cancer rates but derive least benefit from modern medical science.
