Despite the Apparent Progress in Cancer Research and Therapy Over the Last 60 years, Cancer Poses a Much Greater Threat to the World Today, Than in Any Other Point in Medical History

  1. In 2020, an estimated 19.3 million new cancer cases and almost 10.0 million cancer deaths occurred worldwide. When compared to 2010, these figures have increased by 26.3% and 20.9%, respectively. When we consider that 10 million people die from cancer worldwide each year, this equates to 27,500 cancer deaths every 24 hours (Refs. 1 & 2).
  2. Female breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases reported each year. However, lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with an estimated 1.8 million deaths every year, followed by colorectal cancer with 940,000 deaths; liver cancer with 830,000 deaths; stomach cancer with 770,000 deaths; and female breast cancer with 690,000 annual deaths (Refs. 1 & 2).
  3. In the United States alone, 1,670 men, women, and children die from cancer every 24 hours (609,820 annual deaths) (Ref. 3).
  4. Also, in the United States, the number of cancer-related deaths increased from 64 per 100,000 individuals in 1900, to 185.5 per 100,000 individuals in 2018 (Refs. 4, 5 & 6).
  5. In 2002, cancer surpassed cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death in the United States for those under the age of 85 (Refs. 7 & 8).
  6. By 2040, the annual global cancer burden is expected to reach 27.5 million new cases and 16.3 million deaths, representing a 38% and 63% increase, respectively, over 2020 (Ref. 9).
  7. Most cancer patients are unaware that their cancers are incurable and almost invariably lethal if one or more cancer cells escape from being removed from their bodies with early and extensive radical surgery. In other words, with or without surgery, if cancer cells have already migrated from the primary tumor to distant organs, resulting in metastatic disease (stage IV cancer), or their cancer cannot be totally removed from the patient’s body, they will die from it. This was true in 1900 and continues to be so in 2024 (Ref. 10). Unfortunately, in the US, up to 80% of patients with metastatic disease receiving chemotherapy believe they will be cured (Ref. 11)  The above statements in #7 exclude some rare leukemias, lymphomas, some germ-cell tumors, and a few other pediatric cancers that can now be cured with a combination of surgery, conventional chemotherapy, and radiation. Unfortunately, all combined, these tumors account for only 2.7% of all human cancers.
  8. Despite an apparent initial response to conventional chemotherapy and radiation, cancer cells become more aggressive, metastasize more readily, and reach anatomical sites, which are uncommon in non-treated cancers. Only in recent years has this problem of iatrogenic drug-induced exacerbation of cancer been recognized more openly by the medical community (Refs. 12–17). 
  9. Since the early 1990s, the incidence of malignancies diagnosed in people under the age of 50 has increased rapidly in several middle- and high-income countries (Ref. 18). According to a recent epidemiological study, the incidence of cancers of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, extrahepatic bile duct, gallbladder, head and neck, kidney, liver, bone marrow, pancreas, prostate, stomach, and thyroid has increased in persons under the age of 50 worldwide (Ref. 19). These results demonstrate how rapidly cancer is becoming the primary cause of premature death on a global scale (Ref.20).

CITED REFERENCES

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