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24/12/16/1452241 story

Cancer Screening and Quitting Smoking Have Saved Nearly 6 Million Lives

posted by janrinok on Tuesday December 17, @02:09AM   
from the Staying-alive!-Staying-alive! dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Better treatments have also prevented cancer deaths in the last 45 years

Colonoscopies and other cancer screening tests, paired with preventive measures and better treatments helped save nearly 6 million lives from cancer from 1975 through 2020. [About 160,000 per year. --Bytram] .

Nearly 6 million deaths from five common cancers were avoided through prevention, early detection and better treatments, a new study reveals.

Biostatistician Katrina Goddard from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, and colleagues used statistical modeling to estimate how many lives would have been lost in the United States to each of the five cancers if survival rates had remained at 1975 levels, before major advances in cancer control strategies were implemented. The team also calculated how many deaths were avoided by improvements in prevention measures, screening and treatments.

Of the 5.9 million cancer deaths averted from 1975 through 2020, 80 percent were avoided thanks to screening and prevention, the researchers report December 5 in JAMA Oncology.

Some specific highlights:

• About 3.45 million lung cancer deaths were avoided, almost entirely because of smoking cessation.
• All of the 160,000 cervical cancer deaths avoided were due to Pap testing and human papillomavirus screening. (The model did not include cervical cancers prevented by the HPV vaccine, which is reducing deaths among young women (SN: 11/27/24).)
• Better treatments accounted for 75 percent of the more than 1 million avoided breast cancer deaths. The remainder were from mammogram screening.
• Of the 940,000 averted deaths from colorectal cancer, most (79 percent) were caught early or prevented by removal of polyps during colonoscopy screening. Better treatments were responsible for avoiding 21 percent of colorectal cancer deaths.
• Screening prevented 56 percent of prostate cancer deaths, while new treatments averted the other 44 percent.

Still, not enough people are getting screened or adopting cancer-prevention measures, such as quitting smoking. “There’s opportunity to improve the uptake of these strategies,” and to develop new treatments, early detection methods and ways to avoid getting cancer in the first place, says Goddard, who directs NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. “We should definitely consider the whole cancer-control continuum when we’re thinking about how to reduce the burden of cancer.”

Reference (Abstract): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2827241

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Original Submission

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• how to reduce the "burden" of cancerhow to reduce the "burden" of cancer (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @02:19AM (3 children)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @02:19AM (#1385658)

  If RFK Jr takes command, he will adopt the Dalek's method.

  • Re:how to reduce the "burden" of cancer(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @06:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @06:41AM (#1385675)

    Here's a better method: encourage smoking to the point when heart attack prevails over cancer.

    Parent

  • Re:how to reduce the "burden" of cancer(Score: 1, Troll) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 17, @03:19PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday December 17, @03:19PM (#1385704)

    If Elon Musk [bbc.com] takes command, that approach will work for him [sankeymatic.com] too. Wow, Elon Musk and RFK Jr. have a solution that works for them both! No losers in that scenario [schlockmercenary.com], right?

    Parent

  • Re:how to reduce the "burden" of cancer(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @04:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @04:22PM (#1385709)

    Easy solution.

    1. Stop keeping records.
    2. Speculate wildly about drugs you have stock in.
    3. Profit.

    Wait, that works!

    Parent

• More importantMore important (Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Tuesday December 17, @11:09AM (3 children)

  by shrewdsheep (5215) on Tuesday December 17, @11:09AM (#1385685)

  would be life-years saved. Lives "saved" are not created equal. Saving 50 years of life is different from saving 5. Different screenings or vaccinations have different characteristics in this respect and efficacy should be judged in terms of life-years IMO.

  • Re:More importantRe:More important (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Tuesday December 17, @02:46PM (2 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday December 17, @02:46PM (#1385700) Journal

    Huge difference between saving seventy, 90 year olds and the same number of 5 year olds in those terms.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"

    Parent

    • Re:More important(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 17, @03:22PM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday December 17, @03:22PM (#1385706)

      And now you can prove it [moralmachine.net]! Click on "Browse Scenarios" and "Show Description", then you can click on "Start Judging" if you feel like it.

      Parent

    • Re:More important(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @04:24PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 17, @04:24PM (#1385710)

      70 ninety year olds vote 70:1 against the 5 year old. Thoughts and prayers for poor little Tommy, there was nothing anyone could do :(

      Parent