Progress we’ve made
“Will there ever be a cure for cancer?”
“So many people have asked this question – those who are living with cancer, those whose families have been touched by the disease, those who fear that cancer might be in their future.
The good news is that we’re closer than ever to fully understanding, treating, controlling and preventing the many diseases called “cancer.”
Today, 62%* of people diagnosed with cancer will survive the disease compared with 1 in 3 in the 1960s. Thanks to Society-funded research, the treatment and the quality of life during treatment has dramatically improved in the past 20 years.
Incidence rates for most cancer sites are stabilizing or declining. With the exception of lung cancer in women, death rates for most major cancers have declined during the past decade in Canada.
Other recent statistics show the progress we have made against specific cancers, and also the work we still have to do.
In addition to breakthroughs in new treatment approaches, research has also helped to tremendously refine the three “traditional” approaches to cancer treatment — chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. While these approaches have been used for decades to treat cancer, there is a level of personalization and sophistication available today that can only be credited to research.
For example, surgery is now more accurate and often less invasive. Chemotherapy drugs are constantly being fine-tuned. We are also improving ways to deliver radiation therapy so that the treatment is more effective and healthy cells are not affected.
At the same time, there has been a veritable explosion of knowledge about the proteins, genes and cells involved in cancer over the past two decades. This exploding knowledge base is giving us the ability to pose and answer questions we could not even have conceived of 10 to 20 years ago, and is propelling us towards our ultimate goal of creating a world where no one needs to fear cancer.
Some experts doubt that we’ll ever find a single, universal cure for cancer, which isn’t really a single disease but actually is 200 or more different diseases. Yet researchers have uncovered a staggering amount of information about cancer over the past two decades.
This revolution in our understanding of cancer has set the stage for a new era in cancer therapy and prevention, due in part to the many studies and clinical trials funded by the Canadian Cancer Society.
Research milestones
Use the links on the right to find out more about some of the cancer research milestones over the decades, all funded completely or in part by the Canadian Cancer Society.
Thanks to research, we are closer than ever before to fully understanding cancer. A broad range of research funded by the Canadian Cancer Society has contributed to our current knowledge of the disease. And as our knowledge increases, we will see even greater progress.
*Average five-year relative survival rates
Last modified on:
13 December 2009
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