=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #130
—May 23, 1989—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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CANCER STATISTICS.
Is cancer on the rise? What does the National Cancer Institute
(NCI) say?
Overall, cancer incidence among Americans is increasing about 1%
per year, year after year and cancer deaths are increasing, but
less rapidly.
To be precise, since 1950 the average annual increase in cancer
incidence (the number of new cancers occurring each year, per
100,000 population) has been about 0.8% per year, and for
mortality (the total number of cancer deaths each year, per
100,000 people) the increase has been about about 0.2% per year.
Thus the overall general trend is worsening. Within this trend, a
few cancer rates are improving while many others are worsening.
In a few cases, both the incidence and the death rates are
improving. These are the good news. In this category we find
cancers of the stomach, rectum, and cervix. NCI says stomach
cancer is improving for unknown reasons, perhaps mainly related
to improved diet. NCI doesn’t speculate why rectal cancer is
decreasing. Early detection and treatment of pre-cancerous
conditions, through use of the pap smear test, seems to account
for reduction in cervical cancers.
Among some cancers, the incidence is worsening but the death rate
is improving. This is true of seven bad news cancers: colon
(lower intestine), larynx (“voice box”), testis, ovaries, urinary
bladder, Hodgkin’s disease (a fatal enlargement of the lymph
nodes, spleen and general lymphatic tissue), and childhood
cancers. The National Cancer Institute gives the impression that
they are pleased by the general direction of these cancers
because they view this as a medical triumph over a worsening
situation: more people are getting these cancers each year, yet
more are being saved through surgery and to some extent by
radiation therapy and chemotherapy. However, if you look at these
cancers in light of actual human experience –what it’s like to
live through these diseases -the picture is bleak and darkening.
Anyone who has survived cancer surgery, radiation therapy or
chemotherapy can only look at the increasing incidence of these
cancers as a medical failure. It’s nice to be alive as a result
of brutal and extreme treatment by medical practitioners, but
prevention would be ever so much nicer. Friends and families of
the stricken would agree.
Then there are seven cancers for which both incidence and death
rates are increasing: these are the grimmest news. Here we find
cancer of the lung, skin, female breast, prostate gland, kidney,
non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (cancers of the lymph glands), and
leukemia (cancer of the blood-forming cells).
The optimistic view is that cancer increases are really caused by
better detection of the disease. Unfortunately, this is not true.
The NCI’s lengthy report (cited below) from which we gathered all
our statistics does not offer this as an explanation for the
increases in cancer incidence. You can be sure if the NCI had a
shred of evidence that better diagnostic techniques were
responsible for creating a false impression that cancer incidence
is increasing, the NCI would be the first to say so.
Unfortunately the increase in cancer incidence is real.
Table 1 summarizes the data on cancer. Overall, we can see that,
even when we exclude lung cancer, there has been a 22.6% increase
in the incidence rate for all other cancers in this country
during the past 35 years. A larger percentage of people are
surviving these diseases, on average, but at tremendous expense
in money and pain and disfigurement. Their lives and the lives of
those who love them are shattered, in many cases for a very long
time. It is no cause for celebration of self-congratulation by
the medical community.
“Cancer prevention is the direction that national medical
programs must take: this will require a shift in emphasis for the
medical and research communities. Can we count on the doctors to
urge the necessary shift? Unfortunately the plain fact is, there
are enormous sums of money to be made in cancer diagnosis and
therapy, but little or none for those who would prevent cancer.
It seems that the impetus to shift our national medical/research
priorities toward prevention will have to come from outside the
medical community itself.”
Get: National Cancer Institute, 1987 ANNUAL CANCER STATISTICS
REVIEW INCLUDING CANCER TRENDS: 1950-1985 [National Institutes of
Health Publication No. 88-2789] (Bethesda, MD: National Cancer
Institute, 1988). A fat, optimistic volume available free from:
Karen Smigel, Office of Cancer Communications, National Cancer
Institute, 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 31, Room 10A19,
Bethesda, MD 20892. Phone (301) 496-6641.
===================================================================
TABLE 1 — U.S. Cancer Incidence and Deaths in 1985, and the Percent
Change in Rates of Incidence and Death per 100,000 U.S. Population,
1950-1985
===================================================================
| Incidence | Deaths | Incidence | Death | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (in 1985) | (in 1985) | Increase | Increase | |
| (1950-85) | (1950-85) | |||
| stomach | 24,700 | 13,949 | – 72.5% |
-74.8% |
| rectum | 42,000 | 7,860 | – 10.5% |
-64.7% |
| cervix | 15,000 | 4,508 | -77.5% | -73.0% |
| colon | 96,000 | 49,726 | +36.4% | – 0.1% |
| ovaries | 18,500 | 11,357 | + 0.2% |
– 0.4% |
| larynx | 11,500 | 3,501 | +68.9% | -12.2% |
| testis | 5,000 | 425 | +85.1% | -60.0% |
| bladder | 40,000 | 9,785 | +51.1% | -32.7% |
| Hodgkin’s | 6,900 | 1,778 | +23.9% | -61.0% |
| childhood | 6,000 | 1,840 | +31.9% | -55.9% |
| leukemia | 24,600 | 17,449 | + 0.8% |
+ 2.2% |
| lung | 144,000 | 122,395 | +238.6% | +246.5% |
| skin | 22,000 | 5,529 | +242.3% | +147.9% |
| breast | 119,000 | 40,090 | +43.6% | +4.4% |
| prostate | 86,000 | 25,940 | +68.7% | + 5.7% |
| kidney | 19,700 | 8,660 | +82.1% | +23.1% |
| lymphoma | 26,500 | 15,358 | +123.1% | +100.3% |
| All types (excluding lung) | 766,000 | 339,125 | +22.6% | – 15.4% |
| ALL TYPES | 910,000 | 461,520 | +36.5% | + 6.7% |
Source: National Cancer Institute report (cited above),
Table 3, pg. I.22.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: cancers; statistics; tables; nci;