You don’t often see cancer and good news in the same sentence.

But, as helpless as this disease can make us feel, it’s important to note that there is occasionally good news about it. Consider all the progress we’ve made against cancer—particularly over the past few decades.

It was 1971 when the U.S. government launched an all-out effort to cure cancer. Announcing the $100 million National Cancer Act that year, President Richard Nixon said, “The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dreaded disease.”

And while splitting the atom and landing on the moon proved easier to pull off than conquering cancer, we have come a long way, researchers say.

“We had an embryonic knowledge base about cancer back then,” says Raymond DuBois, MD, past president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Fred Schreiber, MD, spokesman for the Watson Clinic hematology-oncology department, agrees.

“We’ve made a lot of headway in figuring out what cancer—in all its forms—does to the human body and what makes some people more genetically prone to the disease,” he says.

To see how far we’ve come, consider these facts about breast cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 35 years ago:

• Only about 75 percent of women with breast cancer survived five years or more. Today, nearly 90 percent of women survive at least five years.

• Complete removal of the breast (mastectomy) was the only accepted surgical treatment for breast cancer. Today, the preferred treatment is breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy).

• There was no standard screening for breast cancer. Today, routine mammograms are the accepted standard for detecting breast cancer early.

There has been progress on other fronts:

In the 1950s, cervical cancer was a major cause of death among U.S. women. Deaths due to the disease have declined by 74 percent since then, thanks to Pap tests and better treatment.

Death rates for some of the most common cancers—prostate, breast and colorectal—continue to decline. Death rates for lung cancer—the top cancer killer—have declined in men but are staying steady in women.

People today know far more about protecting themselves from cancer.

“People have become much more aware of the need for cancer screening,” says Luis A. Franco, MD, who works along with Dr. Schreiber at the Center for Cancer Care & Research. “From being on the lookout for melanoma to having regular

mammograms, there is more awareness today.”

And even though they don’t always follow the advice, many people today know they can reduce their cancer risk by wearing sunscreen, eating less fat and more fruits and vegetables, getting regular exercise, and not smoking.

Along with screenings and prevention, there have been great advances in cancer treatments. And some of the most significant recent advances stem from knowledge gleaned through the human genome project, Dr. Schreiber says.

Researchers now know much more about the genes and mutations that put people at risk for different types of cancer.

As researchers understand where and how cancer attacks, they can develop new ways to fight and prevent it. Cancer treatment and prevention may become increasingly individualized, says D. Franco.

This has already happened with breast cancer, adds Tim Rebbeck, MD, editor-inchief of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the AACR.

Researchers have discovered drugs such as Herceptin and tamoxifen that are helpful only to women with certain tumor characteristics.

About the Center for Cancer Care & Research

The Center for Cancer Care & Research (CCCR) is operated by Watson Clinic and Clark & Daughtrey Medical Group, as well as some of the area’s finest independent physicians.

CCCR recently received a?three-year accreditation with commendation by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, making them one of only two freestanding cancer centers in the entire country to receive this honor.

They are Polk County’s only affiliate of the world renowned H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, and patient care is benefited by access to Moffitt’s tremendous resources.

The CCCR team of board-certified specialists provide customized treatment plans and approach each patient’s treatment using an interdisciplinary approach. Each patient benefits from the expertise and experience of the entire team of cancer specialists, as well as the more than 220 board-certified specialists offered through Watson Clinic. They offer the latest state-of-the-art cancer imaging and treatment technologies such as ultra-speed CT scanners, PET/CT fusion, IGRT and IMRT, high dose rate brachytherapy, MammoSite therapy, prostate seed therapy, Son Array ultrasound, da Vinci robotics, and

the PillCam.

To learn more, please visit our website at www.LakelandCancerTreatment.com.