X-Message-Number: 18816
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 08:38:40 -0500
From: "Raphael T. Haftka" <>
Subject: survival rates do not tell the whole story

Cancer survival rates

Cancer survival rates do not tell the whole story. As Daniel Crevier noted, 
the five years survival rates went up from 40% to 62% since the early 
sixties. However, a substantial part of that increase is due to earlier 
detection without any change in real survival rates. The most extreme 
example is prostate cancer. This is a cancer that usually develops very 
slowly, most men eventually develop it, and most die from other causes 
before it can kill them. Forty years ago, most of these cancers went 
undetected. Today they are usually detected, leading to a common variety of 
cancer that has excellent 5-year survival rate.

There was an article in Scientific American in the last year or two that 
discussed cancer death rates (age adjusted) which have changed very little 
over the same period. I am sorry, but I do not keep my old copies of the 
journal so I do not have the exact source.

Rafi Haftka

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18816