3 ms·
Cancer deaths have been falling since the 90's. Detection and treatments are improving. We don't have a silver bullet because these diseases are so incredibly
by echelon 2y ago
Cancer deaths have been falling since the 90's. Detection and treatments are improving.
We don't have a silver bullet because these diseases are so incredibly complicated. "Cancer" is a particular type of disease behavior, but is essentially a broad class of failure states across different types of cells and tissues, with different genetic, metabolic, biochemical, and molecular dysfunctions.
- derektank 2y agoThe decline in cancer deaths can almost entirely be explained by the decline in smoking. Getting from 40% of people smoking to 15% was probably the biggest public health victory of the latter half of the 20th century
- bb88 2y agosimilar arguments have been made about lead and leaded gasoline being made illegal in the 70s.
- bglazer 2y agoThis is true in the large sense but it obscures that 5 year survival rates have been steadily extending for many people who already have cancer. Treatments are in fact improving
- cyberax 2y agoThat's not true. Survival rates in most cancers went up, not only in lung cancers.
- derektank 2y agoIt's true that there has been some progress in treating most cancers and particular success in treating some specific cancers e.g. with checkpoint inhibitors. But lung cancer is both one of the most common forms of cancer (it's still third even with the massive decline in smoking) and has a much lower 5 year survival rate than the other most common cancers, breast and prostate. The massive decline in smoking has played an outsized impact on the improvement in reducing both cancer rates and deaths from cancer generally