Cancer Statistics
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Cancer is a chronic and complex disease characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the worldwide incidence of cancer in the year 2002 exceeded 10 million cases, excluding basal and squamous cell cancers of the skin. The WHO further estimates that approximately 7.6 million deaths worldwide were attributable to cancer in 2005. In the United States, the American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that roughly 1.4 million cases of non-skin cancers will be diagnosed in 2007, roughly half of which will occur in women. In the United States, women have slightly more than a 1-in-3 lifetime risk of developing cancer. It is estimated that in 2007 approximately 678,060 women will be newly diagnosed with cancer and that an estimated 270,100 women will succumb to the disease. It is anticipated that melanoma and cancers of the breast, cervix, ovary, colon, and rectum will account for over one half of all cancers diagnosed in women in 2007.1
Source: American Cancer Society, Facts & Figures, 2007
Click here to see a graphical representation of the estimated Incidence of cancer for women in 2007. Click here to see a graphical representation of the estimated mortality of cancer for women in 2007. Treatments for cancer are expensive and oftentimes ineffective. Current treatments for cancer include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Surgery is limited in its effectiveness because it treats the tumor at a specific site and may not remove all the cancer cells, particularly if the cancer has spread. Radiation and chemotherapy can treat the cancer at multiple sites but can cause serious adverse side effects because they destroy healthy cells and tissues as well as cancer cells. The ACS projects that in 2007, over 270,100 women will die of cancer-related illness.1 Detecting cancer at the earliest possible stage of disease is critical to patient survival and outcome as reflected in the following five-year relative survival rates:
Source: American Cancer Society, Facts & Figures, 2007 * Rates are adjusted for normal life expectancy and are based on cases diagnosed from 1996-2002, followed through 2003.
Development and utilization of modalities for routine cancer screening is critical to early detection. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year relative survival rate for all cancers is approximately 66% and the relative survival rate for currently screened cancers (i.e. including cancers of the cervix, breast, colon, rectum, and skin) is approximately 86%.1 The ACS estimates that the relative survival rates of these screened cancers could be further increased to 95% if all Americans were regularly screened for these cancers.2
1. American Cancer Society, Facts & Figures, 2007 |
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