The cancer epidemic - Part IV

So, are we getting healthier as a result of our massive expenditure on "health"? Our mass media certainly think so. So, too, do our governments, government agencies like the US National Cancer Institute (NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH) and "non-profit" organizations like the American Cancer Society (ACS). Robert E Moffit, director of the US Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, after acknowledging that "the health care system is broken" (see previous post) thought the rising costs were justified. "Yes, we're spending more, but we're also getting more" he told the Washington Post (28 September 2004). As "evidence" that "the typical patient gets more for the health care dollar" he cited, not improvements in our health - which would have been a big ask - but the following: "newer diagnostic tests, less-invasive surgery and prescription medications"!!!

Returning to cancer, then, just how have we fared? The American Cancer Society (ACS), in its annual report, published last year, estimated that 1,373,000 people were newly diagnosed with cancer in 2005 (1.2 million in 2004) and that 570,280 Americans died from cancer (in 2005). As I pointed out previously, that means that over 1500 people died because of cancer every day last year (and over 1500 people are dying from cancer every day, as I write). How would we define it if 1500 people were dying of the avian (bird) flu every day? It may be difficult to believe, but, since the first cases of avian flu were detected in 1997, the total number of cases reported throughout the world has been a mere 140. That is less than the number of cases of cancer diagnosed in the US alone, every hour! According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 10 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed worldwide every year and there are seven million deaths because of cancer worldwide each year (see post on 16 November 2005). Are we not, therefore, experiencing a global "pandemic" right now? You certainly wouldn't think so if your only source of information is the mainstream press or television. "Childhood cancers are rare" trumpets the ACS document referred to above. Then it gives the game away: "Despite its rarity, cancer is the chief cause of death by disease in children between the ages of 1 and 14" (American Cancer Society, "Cancer facts and figures 2005", Page 11). What the ACS document does not say is that cancer has been the chief cause of death by disease in children between the ages of 1 and 14 for more than 30 years, nor that the incidence of cancer in children has been increasing throughout that period (at least since 1971, when President Nixon launched the "war on cancer") and continues to increase (see www.preventcancer.com).

It is true that, as the cancer establishment, aided by the mass media, has been recently telling us, age-adjusted death rates have finally begun to fall slightly since 1991 (See the NCI's recent report, "Cancer trends progress report - 2005 update", last reviewed 22 December 2005; http://progressreport.cancer.gov/highlights.asp ). But this is only true when the mortality rates are adjusted to take account of the aging population. And even then, we are no better off than we were in 1975, by which time deaths from cancer had already reached epidemic proportions. As I pointed out earlier, the death rate from cancer has been increasung since 1850, when the crude (unadjusted) cancer death rate was around 30 per 100,00 population (in England and Wales). Undoubtedly the figures would change considerably when "age-adjusted". But not enough to hide the fact that there has been a significant increase in both the incidence and mortality rate of cancer over the past 150 years. Here are the figures (cancer deaths per 100,000 population, adjusted to a standard population, viz for the year 2000), from the NCI report, for the past 28 years:

1975-199; 1976-202; 1977-203; 1978-204; 1979-205; 1980-206; 1981-207; 1982-208; 1983-209; 1984-211; 1985-211; 1986-211; 1987-212; 1988-213; 1989-214; 1990-215; 1991-215; 1992-214; 1993-214; 1994-211; 1995-209; 1996-207; 1997-204; 1998-202; 1999-200; 2000-199; 2001-196; 2002-194.

To the cancer establishment these figures mean that we are "winning the war" against cancer, in spite of the fact that over 570,000 Americans died from cancer last year, that well over a million new cases are being diagnosed in the US every year, that 10 million new cases are diagnosed worldwide every year, that seven million people are dying from cancer worldwide every year and that, without the statistical manipulation of "adjusting" the "crude" cancer mortality rates there has been an increase from around 30 per 100,000 to around 200 per 100,000 population. There is also the embarrassing fact that, even according to the figures used by the NCI (and acknowleged by the NCI) the incidence of the following ten cancers continues to rise: breast cancer (in women), prostate and testis (in men), leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma; melanoma; thyroid, kidney and esophagus. The (age-adjusted) death rates from cancers of the liver, thyroid and esophagus also continue to rise, as does death due to lung cancer in women.

Yet another horror statistic not favoured by the NCI or ACS (nor by the mass media) is the following: Cancer in the US now strikes 44% 0f males and 39% of females. That alone should horrify us to the point where it should be the number one issue being discussed, both in the mass media and within government agencies responsible for protecting our health and wellbeing, way ahead of any concern with terrorism or a possible bird flu epidemic or pandemic! We've got an epidemic of frightening proportions taking place right now! What is causing this epidemic? This is an issue I intend to discuss in the future.

In the meantime, I'd like to come back to another uncomfortable statistic, one mentioned earlier. While it is true that well over half a million Americans are dying each year from cancer and while it is also true that some 700,000 Americans are dying every year because of heart disease, it is significant that the "treatments" for these and other diseases, by doctors, using the most modern equipment and drugs in the most modern hospitals, are killing even more Americans than the diseases themselves. In December 2003, Carolyn Dean MD and Gary Null PhD reproduced the following figures for 2001 from National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 51, Number 5, 14 March 2003: In 2001 there were 699,697 deaths in the US due to heart disease; there were 553,251 deaths due to cancer; and the total number of "iatrogenic deaths" (that is, deaths caused by doctors, hospitals and medications) in 2001 was 783, 936 (For the last of these figures, see http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/7/healthcare_death.htm; see also, Carolyn Dean, "Death by medicine", Total Health, 30 September 2004, Volume 26 Issue 4, Pages 42-43). In other words, more people died from medical errors of various kinds, from infections suffered in hospitals and from adverse reactions to drugs than from any disease, sickness or illness, including heart disease and cancer. That should surely be worth a headline or two! The fact that hardly any of us seems even faintly aware of what is killing and injuring us is the most telling feature of our unconsciousness I can think of. But it is also a testament to the enormous power of the combined forces of government, the institutions of science and modern medicine and the mass media to colonise our very consciousness.