Last night one of the biggest stories in the mainstream media was the discovery that the number of Americans who died from cancer decreased in 2003 and 2004. As it normally does, the media overhyped the news and made it seem more significant than it actually is. They described these statistics as a major breakthrough for medicine, making it seem like we are winning the war against cancer. But if you look at the numbers, it is not a major breakthrough.
In 2003 the number of cancer deaths declined by 369, and in 2004 the number of deaths declined by 3,014, with 553,888 deaths. A reduction in cancer deaths is a good thing, but the reduction in 2003 and 2004 is not large enough to describe as a triumph of modern medicine. If cancer deaths were dropping by 5-10% a year, that would be a sign that the medical community is making progress in fighting cancer. But the numbers in 2003 and 2004 are nowhere near that. If the cancer death reduction from 2003 to 2004 continues each year, it would take over 180 years to bring the death rate to 0. I don't think the American Cancer Society and the V Foundation are going to have to close their doors any time soon.
