For millions of patients and families around the world, cancer is a devastating disease. It remains the second greatest killer in the United States,[i] but we have made great strides in the war on cancer. Overall, life expectancy has increased and more patients are able to defeat their cancer. New medicines are playing an increasingly important role in achieving these gains.
Even more promising treatment gains are on the horizon – many researchers believe we are in the midst of a revolution in cancer treatment that offers great hope for patients in need of new options. Learn more
Historic Gains Against Cancer
Life expectancy is increasing for cancer patients. Medicines are an important part of life expectancy gains.
Since 1980 life expectancy for cancer patients has increased about 3 years and 83% of those gains are attributable to new treatments, including medicines.[ii] Another study found that medicines specifically account for 50-60% of increases in survival rates since 1975.[iii]
"I think we really are in the midst of a revolution in the treatment of cancer."[iv]
- Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, American Cancer Society, 2006
"From Killer to Chronic Disease: Drugs Redefine Cancer for Many."[v]
- Washington Post headline, 2003
Cancer death rates are down.
Improvements in treatment have helped cut changes in cancer death rates in half between 1993 and 2004; rates fell an average of 2.1% per year between 2002 and 2004, twice the decline of the previous five years.[vi]
The tremendous value represented by this declining death rate is evident in research findings by University of Chicago economists Kevin Murphy (a MacArthur fellow) and Robert Topel. They report that reducing cancer death rates by 10% would be worth roughly $4.4 trillion in economic value to current and future generations.[vii]
Five-year survival is rising.
The chances that a cancer patient will live at least 5 years has increased across cancers. In 1975-79 the 5-year survival rate was just 50%. By 2000 survival rose to 67%.[viii]
Survival is increasing dramatically for many forms of cancer. For patients diagnosed in 2000, 5-year survival went up 21% for breast cancer, 42% for prostate cancer, 28% for colon and rectum cancer, and 25% for lung and bronchus cancer compared to patients diagnosed from 1975-1979.[ix]
New Cancer Medicines Significantly Advanced Treatment in 2010
A report by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) identified 12 major advances in the treatment of cancer in 2010 in key areas such as personalized medicine and targeted therapies, new treatments and medications for specific diseases, reducing cancer recurrence, quality of life, and more. Among the 12 major advances in the understanding of cancer, 8 were related to new medicines, better ways to use existing medicines, or newly discovered benefits or approved medicines.[x]
“Scientifically, we have never been in a better position to advance cancer treatment. … We now understand many of the cellular pathways that can lead to cancer. We have learned how to develop drugs that block these pathways. And increasingly, we know how to personalize therapy to the unique genetics of the tumor, and the patient.”[xi]
- Rickard L. Schilsky, M.D., President, ASCO, 2008
New Medicines Offer Hope for the Future
Today 887 medicines are in development to prevent, treat or cure cancer. These medicines are the product of our growing understanding of the molecular underpinnings of cancer and they treat the disease in new and innovative ways. These new medicines promise to build on the progress we have seen against cancer in recent years Click here to learn more.
The medicines in development—all in either clinical trials or under Food and Drug Administration review— include among others 98 for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and 91 for breast cancer, which is expected to strike more than 200,000 American women each year. The medicines in development also include80 for prostate cancer, which is expected to kill more than 32,000 American men each year, and 55 for colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in both men and women in this country. Learn more
[ii]E. Sun, et al. “The determinants of recent gains in cancer survival: An analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database,” Journal of Clinical Oncology, May 2008 Suppl (Abstract 6616).
[iii]F.R. Lichtenberg, "The Expanding Pharmaceutical Arsenal in the War on Cancer", National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 10328 (Cambridge, MA: NBER, February 2004).
[iv]J.L. Lichtenfeld, PhRMA “Future of Innovation” briefing, Washington DC, 24 April 2006.
[v]R. Stein. “From Killer to Chronic Disease: Drugs Redefine Cancer for Many,” The Washington Post, 29 January 2003, A 01.
[vi]D. Espey, et.al, “Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2004, Featuring Cancer in American Indians and Alaska Natives,” Cancer, 2007.
[vii]K.M. Murphy and R.H. Topel, eds., Measuring the Gains for medical Research: An Economic Approach, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 42. "Determinants of Survival Following HIV-1 seroconversion after introduction of HAART," The Lancet, 362 (2003):1267-1274.
[viii]F.R. Lichtenberg, "The Expanding Pharmaceutical Arsenal in the War on Cancer", National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 10328 (Cambridge, MA: NBER, February 2004).
[ix]L.A.G. Ries, et.al.,"SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975–2008," National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD: 2008), Tables IV-11, XXIII-6, VI-12, XV-12, http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2005/index.html (accessed 21 December 2011).
[x]M.G. Kris, et.al., “Clinical Cancer Advances 2010:ASCO’s Annual Report on Progress Against Cancer,” Journal of Clinical Oncology, 28, no. 36 (2010): 5327-5347.
[xi]American Society of Clinical Oncology, “Clinical Cancer Advances 2008: Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention and Screening,” Journal of Clinical Oncology, 22 December 2008.
