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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – STANFORD, Calif. — America stands on the verge of squandering its hard-won ammunition in the war on cancer. That’s the disturbing vision portrayed in the lead story of the new issue of Stanford Medicine magazine, a special report on cancer.
While data and insights pour in as never before, the efforts to prevent, treat and cure cancer face daunting obstacles. Prime among them: a dysfunctional cancer clinical-trial system, disastrous drug shortages and a health-care system unable to deliver cancer care at an affordable price.
“Without meaningful change at the policy level, many experts worry that we will squander the opportunity to bring these discoveries from the lab to patients,” said National Cancer Institute research strategist Jerry Lee, PhD, deputy director of the Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives.
Decades of investment and innovation have pushed the understanding of cancer far beyond what was known when President Nixon declared the “war” in 1971. Huge investments of time, intellect and dollars have worked miracles for some types of cancer, but obviously, not all.
“With the exception of a few precious triumphs,” wrote Krista Conger, the lead piece’s author, “the diagnosis still often feels like nothing less than a heartbreakingly punctuated death sentence: Treatments can lead to disease-free intervals, but about 50 percent of adult cancer patients can still expect to die from their disease.”
And while leaps in understanding of cancer biology have become nearly commonplace over the past few decades, resulting in a strong base of science to build on, this pace of discovery can’t be taken for granted. Given the economic downturn and national debt burden, prolific spending on research is unlikely, no matter how fruitful its promise.
The special report, “Cancer’s next stage,” describes challenges and solutions in cancer research and care at this precarious time. It’s time to shake things up, said many cancer experts. In fact, Pulitzer-winning author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, (The Emperor of All Maladies) suggested we would be wise to do away with the cancer war imagery altogether.
As he said in this issue’s Q&A: “I think we need to re-create narratives to understand what is happening. Harold Varmus [director of the National Cancer Institute] said to me, ‘Wars are things we win and lose, but solving cancer is like solving a jigsaw puzzle. And you don’t win or lose a jigsaw puzzle; you solve it or you don’t solve it.’”
Inside the report:
• Conger’s piece on fighting cancer at a time of burgeoning data and circumscribed resources.
• The Q&A with Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.
• An account of a family wrestling with cancer during pregnancy.
• An article on cancer survivors’ need for special support — and how rarely they get it.
• A cancer patient’s perspective on palliative care.
• A how-to guide for developing a cancer diagnostic test with just an Internet browser, high school biology, basic statistics and a few thousand dollars.
• The story behind a push to reconsider a controversial treatment for metastatic, “incurable” breast cancer: high-dose chemotherapy.
• A quick look at some of Stanford’s recent cancer research discoveries.
• A take on new evidence showing that “good” stress might thwart cancer.
This issue’s “Plus” section, featuring stories unrelated to the special report, includes:
• The collaboration of an artist and a surgeon to create a compendium of microsurgery illustrations that’s become a treasured a surgical reference.
• A feature on a newly discovered role for the immune system: It helps us think.
The magazine, including Web-only features, is available online at http://stanmed.stanford.edu. Print copies are being sent to subscribers. Others can request a copy at (650) 736-0297 or [email protected]. Stanford Medicine is published three times a year by the medical school’s Office of Communication & Public Affairs. Follow @stanmedmag on Twitter.
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The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
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