WSJ Brianna Abbott reports “U.S. Cancer Death Rate Drops by Largest Amount on Record” Online Updated January 8, 2020
Cancer death rates began declining 25 years ago but between 2016-2017 the rate fell by a record 2.2% largely due to improved survival rates in melanoma and lung cancer. Better early detection, radiation and surgical treatments and lower smoking rates contributed to lower lung cancer rates. Leveraging decades of basic research, newer drugs acting on cancer targets at the molecular level and those coordinating immune-mediated destruction of cancer are having a rewarding impact. Today, determining each cancer’s makeup at the cellular and molecular level is being used as “Personalized Medicine” for selecting traditional and new innovative treatments. Regardless, cancer claims 600,000 U.S. lives per year but that is down “29% since 1991” or an “estimated 272,450 fewer deaths”. Companies cited in the article are: Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech and Merck. Read the article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-cancer-death-rate-drops-by-largest-amount-on-record-11578484809?
