In 1971, President Richard Nixon and the U.S. Congress declared war on cancer. In 2016, President Barack Obama launched the Cancer Moonshot, a program to reduce cancer mortality and improve the lives of people with cancer. In 2010, I reviewed the progress of cancer therapy: its costs, efficacy, and adverse side effects (Spector 2010). I also proposed greater emphasis on the importance of preventive efforts.
I focus here on the progress since 2010 in adult cancer. Much of this is due to a new class of immunological drugs, principally check point inhibitors. I will attempt to place the facts in proper perspective after an overview of cancer data, the epidemiology, and treatment of adult cancer in the United States.
Cancer is and has been for many years the second most common cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease (Table 1). In contrast to heart disease and stroke, the death rates for which declined 70 percent and 78 percent, respectively, between 1950 and 2010, the death rate for cancer declined only 11 percent (National Center for Health Statistics 2022; Elfin 2022). The declines in heart disease and stroke result f rom improved treatment and prevention, especially the decline in smoking and advances in the treatment of high blood pressure and atherosclerosis.