=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #222
—February 27, 1991—
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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LOSING THE BATTLE AGAINST CANCER.
A new report from the U.S. National Cancer Institute makes it
clear that we are losing the battle against cancer in the sense
that more and more of us are getting it. In the U.S., the
incidence rate for all cancers except three (stomach, rectum, and
cervix) has risen steadily since 1950; see Table 1. (Incidence
rate means the number of people each year diagnosed with a new
cancer per 100,000 population.) These are age-adjusted data,
which rules out the explanation that “people are living longer so
they’re getting more cancer.” At the same time that the incidence
rate for 14 types of cancer has risen during the last 37 years,
the death rate (the number of people each year dying of a cancer
per 100,000 population) for 11 types of cancer has fallen while
the death rate for only 6 types of cancer has risen; see Table 1.
Some government officials, and some medical doctors want to put a
good face on this and declare it a kind of victory to have more
and more of us living with a cancer that we have to fight,
sometimes for the rest of our lives. As the NEW YORK TIMES said
recently (Feb. 4, 1991, pgs. 1, B6) there’s a “Changing View of
Cancer: Something to Live With.” The TIMES story opens with a
vignette of what it means to live with cancer:
“Margaretta Young was a Charlotte, N.C., teacher when she felt a
tiny lump in her breast on Easter weekend in 1963. Since then,
doctors have found tumors in her bones, liver, brain,
parathyroid, and stomach.
“Mrs. Young has had seven operations, 30 sessions of radiation
therapy, and 17 years of weekly chemotherapy. She is not cured,
and after 28 years of cancer and treatment, she is weakened,
scarred, and often in pain.” But she is alive, the TIMES points
out, and she says she still enjoys the life she is hanging on to.
The TIMES speaks of “real advances in treatment” for cancer, but
goes on to describe the harsh reality that cancer patients face:
“Most cancer patients say they are constantly aware of their
disease, sometimes because of tangible reminders like having to
take a pill every day, feeling pain, or dressing to cover up
scars or prostheses. Many have serious side effects from
treatment, including sterility, nausea, profound exhaustion or
organ failure.
“And almost all cancer patients say there are emotional
reminders, too, in the form of a new sense of mortality, added
fear of the future, and a sense of somehow being apart from those
who have never had cancer. Each new ache or pain, they say,
brings with it a special terror that their cancer is growing or
spreading….
“The expanded arsenal of cancer treatments, which still mostly
involve some form of surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, can be
brutal, causing side effects that may be as severe a burden as
the disease. So many patients with incurable cancers are faced
with decisions about just how much they are willing to go through
to stay alive for a few more years…. ‘Some people feel we’re
prolonging living, others that we’re prolonging death,’” says Dr.
John Rowe, president of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New
York.
The new report from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) says,
“Each race and sex group [in the U.S.] showed statistically
significant increases in the overall incidence of cancer between
1973 and 1987.” (Pg. I.1 of the NCI report, which is cited in our
last paragraph, below.) In this overall negative trend, there are
scattered bits of good news; for example, in the period,
1983-1987, the incidence of lung cancer among men declined 0.6%
per year–no doubt related to changing patterns of tobacco use
(pg. I.1). (However, among white females, both the lung cancer
incidence rate and death rate more than doubled between 1973 and
1987 [pgs. I.7-I.8]–again a reflection of tobacco use: yes, you
have “come a long way, baby” as the cigarette ads like to
proclaim.)
Since 1980, the incidence of breast cancer among U.S. women has
increased “rather dramatically” from 84.8 per 100,000 to 111.9
per 100,000–a 32% increase. (NCI, pg. I.2.) Better screening by
mammography partly explains the change, but “these increases are
a major concern” says NCI (pg. I.9). The incidence of malignant
melanoma–an aggressive and deadly form of skin cancer–increased
78.8% among whites during the period 1973-1987.
The incidence of cancer of the colon and rectum increased slowly,
1973-1987, from 46 per 100,000 to 49. However it increased more
rapidly among men (from 53.2 to 60.4). (Pgs. II.12, II.13).
Cancer of the prostate gland “has become the number one cancer
for men,” says NCI (pg. I.11). Prostate cancer incidence
increased 46% between 1973 and 1987; it affects black men (132.0
per 100,000) much more than white men (88 per 100,000) (pg. I.11).
Between 1973 and 1987, the incidence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
increased 50.9%; only malignant melanoma and female lunger cancer
increased faster during the period (pg. I.11). Cancer of the
testicles increased 37% during 1973-1987; the death rate from
this cause dropped 60% during the period (pg. I.14.)
The incidence of urinary bladder cancer is rising at about 1% per
year among white males but at more than twice that rate among
black males. (Pg. I.14). The death rate among both groups is
dropping.
Brain cancer increased slowly from 1973 to 1980; then “around
1980 the incidence of brain cancer began increasing at an
alarming rate among people 65 and older with an increase of more
than 3% per year,” says NCI (pg. I.14). Survival rates for this
cancer are “dismal,” says NCI. An estimated 15,600 new brain
cancers were diagnosed in 1990.
Incidence of cancer among children increased 6.1% during the
period 1973-1987; the death rate dropped dramatically, however
(36% overall, and 50% or more for four cancers). (Pg. I.15)
Get: Lynn A. Gloeckler Ries and others, editors. CANCER
STATISTICS REVIEW 1973-1987 [National Institutes of Health
Publication No. 90-2789]. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute
(NCI), 1990. Free from Office of Cancer Communications, NCI,
Building 31, Room 10A24, Bethesda, MD 20892; phone (301) 496-6641.
Table 1 — U.S. Cancer Incidence and Deaths in 1987, and the Percent
Change in Rates of Incidence and Death per 100,000 U.S. Population,
1950-1987.
| Cancer type | Incidence in 1987 | Deaths in 1987 | Percent change in Incidence, 1950-1987 |
Percent change in deaths, 1950-1987 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ——————————————————————————————————————- | ||||
| stomach | 24,600 | 13,740 | -72.6 | – 75.3 |
| rectum | 43,000 | 7,638 | -12.5 | – 65.9 |
| cervix | 12,800 | 4,423 | -78.5 | -73.0 |
| colon | 102,000 | 49,613 | +24. | – 3.1 |
| ovaries | 19,000 | 11,838 | +0.6 | – 0.5 |
| larynx | 12,100 | 3,670 | +57.3 | -8.1 |
| testicles | 5,500 | 422 | +97.3 | -64.5 |
| bladder | 45,500 | 9,589 | +52.5 | – 35.3 |
| Hodgkin’s | 7,300 | 1,755 | +15.1 | – 61.7 |
| childhood | 6,600 | 1,787 | +28.4 | – 58.7 |
| leukemia | 26,400 | 17,440 | +2.6 | – 1.8 |
| lung | 154,000 | 129,866 | +256.9 | +245.0 |
| skin | 25,800 | 5,912 | +283.8 | +147.2 |
| breast | 130,000 | 40,896 | +58.3 | +3.6 |
| prostate | 96,000 | 27,863 | +97.3 | +10.9 |
| kidney | 21,900 | 9,332 | +101.0 | +28.9 |
| lymphoma | 29,900 | 16,269 | +153.1 | +100.0 |
| All types (excluding lung) | 811,000 | 347,028 | +27.4 | – 19.0 |
| All types | 965,000 | 476,894 | +42.2 | +7.0 |
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: nci; cancers; bone; liver; brain; parathyroid;
stomach; new york times; race; gender; breast; melanoma; colon;
rectum; prostate; lung; urinary bladder; brain; children;
hodgkin’s; kidney; ovaries; cervix; larynx; testicular; lymphoma;
skin cancer; john rowe; death statistics; diseases; studies;
health effects; skin;