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Our best weapons against cancer are not magic bullets

Better health and social policy would save more lives than sophisticated drugs.
  1. Vinay Prasad

    1. Vinay Prasad is associate professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and author of the forthcoming book Malignant: How Bad Policy and Bad Evidence Harm People with Cancer. Twitter: @VPrasadMDMPH

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Earlier this month, the American Cancer Society announced its latest figures on cancer incidence and mortality1. These included the largest drop ever observed in national cancer statistics, which several media outlets seized on. Cancer death rates in the United States peaked in 1990, and in 2008–17 fell by about 1.5% per year. Between 2016 and 2017, the drop was slightly larger: 2.2%. This is undeniably good news.

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Nature 577, 451 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00116-2

References

  1. Siegel, R. L. et al. CA Cancer J. Clin. 70, 7–30 (2020).

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Competing Interests

V.P. reports royalties from the book Ending Medical Reversal (2015), and an advance for his new book. His work is funded by Arnold Ventures, he has received honoraria for Grand Rounds and lectures from several universities, medical centres, non-profit groups and professional societies. He is a writer for Medscape. He runs the podcast Plenary Session, which has Patreon backers.

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