In a recently released report the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) revealed a decline in cancer deaths in the country due to treatment advancements but emphasized on the need for continuous research funding.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) released a report Tuesday, which revealed that there has been a drop in the number of cancer deaths in the United States. Almost 14 million people in the U.S. today are cancer survivors, according to the American Association for Cancer Research's Cancer Progress Report 2013. The report also revealed that the reason behind this drop is that there have been many recent advances in cancer research, which has led to better treatments and increase in survival rates.
"Cancer research efforts have spurred the translation of scientific discoveries into new and better ways to prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat cancer. These advances are contributing to the rise in the number of people who are surviving longer and living fuller lives after their cancer diagnoses," authors of the report said in a press statement.
However, officials from AACR, the world's largest cancer research organization, said that this victory could be short-lived if proper measures are not taken. They emphasized on the need for continued national funding of cancer research and biomedical science as worldwide rates of cancer are expected to rise to 22.2 million patients in 2030 from 12.8 million in 2008. Aging has been cited as one of the reasons for the predicted rise in cancer rates.
"There's going to be an increasing number of cancers because the population is aging," said Giuseppe Giaccone, an associate director at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, in a Sept. 16 telephone interview. "There really should be continued support for research in cancer. This is the only way you can get continued results in the future. To do this kind of research is expensive but there's no other way."
Investments in cancer research have resulted in cutting the rate of many of the more than 200 types of cancers and better quality of life and longer lives for people whose malignancies can't be prevented or cured, the authors wrote. For instance, survival rates for breast cancer for women and acute lymphocytic leukemia for children have increased to 90 percent or more since the mid-1970s.
Cancer is the second biggest cause of cancer, coming second only to heart disease. This year, more than 580,000 people are expected to die and another 1.6 million Americans will be diagnosed with the disease, the authors said. The majority of those diagnosed with the disease are 55 and older.
