Monday, March 16, 1998

Cancer's drop is one national success story

Back in 1971, President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, and today, nearly three decades later and following the expenditure of some $30 billion for research, new cancer cases and cancer deaths are both down.

It's not just the Nixon administration initiatives, of course, that have caused the decline, which occurred from 1990 to 1995 for the first time since the 1930s. They played a role, though, in improved treatments, just as efforts from many quarters have played a role in more thorough screening. Lifestyles have changed, too, owing a lot to the surgeon general's report on the dangers of smoking in 1964. The percentage of Americans puffing on cigarettes has been cut in half since then, so that there are more former smokers in the land now than current smokers.

Although the decrease in new cases was less than 1 percent, it is across a range of many of the most widespread and deadly cancers and appears to be ongoing. Scientists say that in 1995 alone, some 30,000 fewer people died than would have without these reductions, although some segments of the population have not benefited. Black men, for instance, are suffering increasing rates of prostate cancer, apparently because they are not as frequently examined as white men.

Two points worth mentioning are that sound public policies wedded to good science can produce powerful results and that we now know more than ever before about how to attack cancer. For reasons of ideology, politicians will sometimes embrace bad science, and vast sums are sometimes expended in the name of health even though health is scarcely affected.

The fight against cancer is an instructive and uplifting success story, although much remains to be done.