It’s become a science writers’ meme: After decades of research and billions of dollars, we have lost the war on cancer.

The latest iteration came Friday in The New York Times, where Gina Kolata and Lawrence Altman remind us that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was a prime mover behind the war on cancer. But, they lament, his “fate was not much changed by the cancer war. Despite billions that have been spent, the death rate from most cancers barely budged.”

Kolata wrote much the same thing about the war on cancer in a series of articles in April. Sharon Begley said so in Newsweek last year. It’s been widely reported elsewhere, too. Journalists agree: we lost the war.

I’m not so sure. Here’s one thought: Is the death rate the only criterion by which to judge the success of the war on cancer?

Researchers waging the war on cancer have assembled vast archives of knowledge of cell biology, cancer genetics, metastasis, virology–research of great potential value. Much of it might not be curing cancer now, but it counts for something.

And maybe length of survival counts for something, too. Kolata and Altman say lower down in their piece that the survival rate for people with Kennedy’s illness (glioblastoma) “has more than tripled in the past 40 years, from about four and a half months to 14 or 15 months today.” Kennedy managed to live about 15 months after his diagnosis. The war on cancer gave him an extra year of life. Is that a win or a loss?

And here’s another thought: Maybe we shouldn’t be so sure that cancer rates have “barely budged,” as the Times reports. Maybe that meme, something we’re so sure is true that maybe we don’t bother to check, ought to be discarded.

In mid-August, many news outlets reported that cancer death rates are falling.

From Bill Hendrick of WebMD:

“Death rates from cancer have been decreasing in all age groups in recent years, but the steepest declines have been among younger people, a new study shows.”

The same trend was noted in news stories in May, prompted by an American Cancer Society report. Again, from WebMD:

“The report shows a 19% drop in men’s overall cancer death rates between 1990 and 2005 and a decline of about 11% in women’s overall cancer death rates between 1991 and 2005.”

I don’t know whether we’ve won or lost the war on cancer. But reporters who argue a position ought to be sure they’ve reviewed all the evidence.

- Paul Raeburn

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 9:15 am and is filed under Health & Medicine Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.