Deaths from all types of cancer in the US fell by an estimated 33% since 1991, saving a cumulative 3.8 million lives, according to a report released yesterday by the American Cancer Society. Progress was attributed to improvements in cancer treatment, early detection, and significant drops in smoking.
Lung, breast, and colorectal cancers account for the highest number of deaths in women. However, cervical cancer rates have dropped 65% among women ages 20-24 from 2012-19, largely credited to the introduction of the human papillomavirus or HPV vaccine. For men, lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers are the deadliest. The report highlighted a 3% increase in prostate cancer from 2014-19, driven by an increase in advanced disease diagnosis. To combat the rise, ACS announced an initiative to increase access to screening and treatment for prostate cancer.
Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the US, with more than 1.9 million people expected to be diagnosed with cancer resulting in an estimated 610,000 deaths this year. See the full report here.
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I have different numbers but still pretty close. I figured the real difference is that women get breast cancer at a much younger age than men. Statistically, the difference in days of life lost before natural death is much higher with women.
Thanks for sharing Scout! I have had this discussion with people and they don't get it.
TEBozo I think we could get the ship headed in the right direction in 5 - 7 years if we ramp up awareness and screening. But when you have the horrendous healthcare providers like Kaiser Permanente who have 12 million members and follow USPSTF guidelines because they are so imbedded with the organization to manage their business from an "outside" organization with "health experts who do not consider the financial costs of treatment". Basically you put the Fox in charge of the hen house. They choose the studies they want for their "evidence", they use doctors who are most likely not a specialist in the care they are making recommendations on, they use doctors with a specialty in public health policy and cost effectiveness of care, etc, etc. The USPSTF is an organization to limit the healthcare system's financial risk MORE than about patient care.
Example my friend Shelly just passed 9/27/21 at age 51 from colon cancer as a Kaiser patient. 19 months from diagnosis at age 50 to her death at 51. No comorbidities, no family history, fit and healthy.
When did KP lower their screening age? 2021
When did ACS lower their screening age? 2018
What did my girlfriend get in the mail from KP in 2021 at age 49? A FIT test that she had no idea why she was getting it. Well because they lowered the screening age just as my friend Shelly had told me before she died.
Would Shelly be around today if KP had lowered their screening in 2018 and sent out? She would have had a significantly greater chance with early detection.
The USPSTF is healthcare's backdoor risk management to the Affordable Care Act. Since they had to accept everyone, raise the bar on screening and prevention. And because the USPSTF has the power it does the healthcare system is protected with these USPSTF recommendations!
Just my 2 cents on this healthcare cluster ph-uck!
it’s big business getting rid of fighting age, military aged men, plus the government saving on social security pay outs, pension pay out,Medicare etc…that’s reality… big Pharma is big business, it’s no longer about the patient…it’s not about saving lives any more, it’s about money making maintenance……why most physicians are disillusioned and uninspired…change my mind
if that were true there would be no vaccines. Just think of the billions of dollars to be made with a cancer vaccine. That’s why HPV is such a great breakthrough and lowering cancer deaths.
My surgeon needs to go back to school. With me, it was one and done. Get everything out of me during the prostatectomy and then he only has to see me once every 6 months for a PSA review.
I heard a Doctor speaking about this . He said it’s not due to better treatments it’s almost entirely because so many have stopped smoking ..
I believe the USPSTF guidelines and resulting guidelines from the primary care physicians caused some of this rise. My husband had a PSA test annually but his FP didn’t refer him until his PSA jumped from 5 . He was thus de novo metastatic despite receiving annual checkups
My GP at Kaiser DID ask , at least 8 yrs ago, if I would like a PSA test. I disagree with the bashing of USPTF, but know I wouldn't change any minds. Lots of conspiratorial thinking here.
IMHO there is no doubt that more testing would lead to fewer deaths...but with more costs both financially, physically, and emotionally. Lowering the cutoff to PSA of 1 would also catch more cancers, so we should do that too ????
Does anyone have any actual proof that Kaiser care is inferior to the care delivered by other community providers??? I doubt it!!!
In my opinion the increase in Prostate fatalities coincides with one of the medical societies saying PSA smchecking was not necessary. Resulting in higher numbers of high stage diagnosises.Simple math, don't look, don't find, later found. Kind of dumb.
Let's face it the Millennials sabotoged the Affordable Care Act. Millennials were the key to the success or failure of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The central component of the ACA wasthe individual mandate, which sought to pool risk on a broad scale by requiring healthy young people to have health insurance. When Millennials chose not to enroll, the wherewithal to control health insurance costs was lost as an increasingly older and sicker insurance pool caused collective risk to balloon. This showed that millennials not only disapproved of the ACA, but also believed that the health care law would increase their health care costs and impair the quality of their care. They did not accept the social contract which many Europeans do: The young help pay for the care of their seniors, knowing that the next generation will support them. They also created a back door for the act to be deemed unconstitutional. What we have in this country is a struggle over limited funds that either pay for the very expensive care for the elderly on the one hand or such things as maternal care (number of deaths during childbirth and the period thereafter are rising), education etc. What they practice at Kaiser (I used to be a member years years ago) is a kind of triage of the elderly: fewer specialists, lack of availability and approval of new drugs and delayed procedures. The Boomers are blamed for everything. They have already pillaged the planet, bought their homes , which many of them are sitting on and, according to the Millennials, are selfishly refusing to sell to them at fire sale prices, and dominate the stock market. It's time for them to move on!
I think the reason Prostate cancer has not responded to modern advances is because so many many cases are caused by the PROTOCOLS set by the industry leaders and passed down to the un-thinking doctors.
Lets review PSA history.. (as I understand it)
-Invented in the 1980s. Widespread adoption. Advanced PCa patients showing up at docs offices plummets. Mostly all early detected guys. I imagine industry profits plummet as well maybe not enough $ to keep the gears running.
-New plan adopted to not "overtreat" all these poor men. We are hurting them with all this over treatment. (every patient you meet that has survived 20 years was over treated). PSA is discredited.
-There was actually a period of maybe 5 years or so, where doctors were not even using the PSA test. I read an article about that period and how advanced PCa cases skyrocketed and many men needlessly died.
-Now.. idk. PSA is still discredited. You hear stories on here all the time about guys that were not PSA tested and get a PSA of like 60 or 100 on their first test.
Also, this thing where you see very High Risk category guys that were steered to radical prostatectomy.... the papers I read show that every other guy that is sent that way will get a metastatic recurrence with all that that means.
I've read all of the blather and furious hand waving about why they don't want to over treat, and frankly, none of it seems to make sense or hold water in my view. Sounds like BS to me. But... I can smell the money.
Look, the Millennials have their gripes about the Boomers despoiling the environment BUT by not understanding, as I have said, the social contract between the generations, they have concentrated sickies, such as us, together and therefore made health insurance even more costly. They've also provided a basis for the ACA to be considered unconstitutional.
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