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Please write an essay about cancer and our progress in preventing and treating this disease since the “War on Cancer” was announced over 41 years ago. Are we making progress in curing cancer since 1971? If so, where? Why has the incidence rates of many cancers continued to increase? Why is cancer the leading cause of death by disease in children and of adults under the age of 85? What should be done to improve progress in curing or preventing cancer? You can take any approach you feel is best. Be sure to define the problem and provide realistic solutions.

Since President Nixon declared a “war on cancer” in 1971 the awareness and attentiveness focused on the portentous disease has rocketed. Millions of dollars have gone to various cancer research teams funded by the government, like the National Cancer Institute, or other independent groups such Susan G. Komen, or Livestrong which have made significant contributions in the investigation and study of cancer prevention and treatment. According to cancer.org and A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the rate of people being diagnosed with cancer in the United States in 1970 compared to in 2010 is 330,000 to 1,529,560. The rates of people being diagnosed is significantly higher now than in Nixon’s day, however the mortality rates have significantly lowered due better technology and treatment. There were fewer treatments available to people living with cancer 4 decades ago, and more and more people nowadays are surviving cancer. However as industrial and technological advances surged forward from the seventies to the 21st century the environments we have created have only fostered the growth of cancerous tumors, free-radicals, and carcinogens. As we move forward we can only hope that we begin to use cleaner and more environmentally friendly practices for creating jobs, harvesting our food, and our transportation.  

The cancer Mesothelioma is a cancer caused (most likely) by the inhaling of asbestos, which causes damage to the pleura, the outer lining of the lungs. Symptoms include pain in chest, shortness of breath, and in more severe cases blood clots or pleural effusion. Mesothelioma is difficult to cure, and treatments may increase life span but sometimes only for a short period. Many treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery are all used to fight mesothelioma, but there are now treatments such immunotherapy that are used to help the body fight off the tumors. James "Rhio" O'Connor fought his cancer an all-natural way by changing his diets, and boosting his bodies vitamin and mineral levels. Natural remedies are put on this earth to help us survive and one must be resilient enough like Rhio to make the touch choice to deny modern medicine and prolong life with natural remedies. Though our industrial lives have created a difficult problem to solve we may only have to look to the ground for the real cures to some deadly diseases. 

Although diagnoses of cancer have skyrocketed since the 70’s there have been significant breakthroughs in cancer prevention and treatment. Researchers and scientist have found certain elements that can map out a cancer’s life span, for instance the organization Breakthrough Breast Cancer in England discovered that cancer cells with faulty BRCA (tumor suppressors linked to hereditary cancer) genes are sensitive to PARP inhibitors (protein that helps repair DNA breaks), while also discovering that the protein FGFR1 helps some breast cancers to grow.  These discoveries and others are incremental but they have drastically helped in the overall process to debunk cancer’s hardwiring. There have also been substantial breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, such as lumpectomies instead of entire mastectomies; whereas chemotherapy was the only option for most people, there are now treatments with better tumor killing accuracy like proton therapy and anti-angiogenesis therapy.   

                William Li, the head of Angiogenesis Foundation, a nonprofit that is re-conceptualizing global disease fighting, has found a new way to treat and prevent cancer.  Angiogenesis is the physiological process involving the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels, used for things like healing a wound, after the new vessels are no longer needed the body prunes them back, but sometimes the new vessels do not prune back,  or are not grown in the first place. “But what we now know is that for a number of diseases, there are defects in the system where the body can't prune back extra blood vessels or can't grow enough new ones in the right place at the right time. And in these situations, angiogenesis is out of balance. And when angiogenesis is out of balance, a myriad of diseases result. For example, insufficient angiogenesis -- not enough blood vessels -- leads to wounds that don't heal, heart attacks, legs without circulation, death from stroke, nerve damage. And on the other end, excessive angiogenesis -- too many blood vessels -- drives disease, and we see this in cancer, blindness, arthritis, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease (Williams Li, TED Conference).  The angiogenesis process is a key component in a disease like cancer because cancerous tumors cannot survive or grow without a sufficient blood supply. Cancers that enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system become malignant. So a balanced angiogenesis process  in the body can prevent blood vessels from feeding cancer cells, William Li has thought of a new process  in which we can starve cancer cells by making sure the angiogenesis process stays in balance and does not reach the tumors. Yi’s ideas have been put into practice and yielded successes in brain and breast cancer as well as cancers found in animals. 

What Li has also found is that there are foods we can eat that will inhibit an abnormal angiogenesis process and prevent vessels from feeding tumors, foods like red grapes, blackberries, strawberries, ginseng, garlic and dark chocolate. Li has also found that some drugs used in cancer treatment like Statins (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) inhibit angiogenesis are less potent than a high diet in anti-angiogenesis foods. Li and his team also conducted a study where men who ate tomatoes were less likely to develop prostate cancer, and of those that did were able to suppress the growth of their tumors by eating more foods high in lycopene. What Li and his research team have found is a new way to look at preventative nutrition, cancer treatment is expensive and if simply changing our diets can help lower the risk of getting cancer attitudes towards nutrition and public health will change. Not only does the anti-angiogenesis process protect from tumor growth it also has been found to lower obesity, I believe Li’s methods are the way scientist and researchers should be looking at cancer. 

So why is cancer still developing? It seems the more we advance as a people is in direct correlation with the growth of cancer. Our automobiles emit hazardous fumes; even cell phones have been discovered to have long term brain damaging effects (Danielle Dellorto, CNN). Our practices of advancement have not been the safest, we still use engine combustion which creates pollution, and we rely heavily on processed foods, all dangerous because they lead to excessive amounts of free radical cells in the body.  Our ability to create safer, environmentally friendly practices for gathering food, such as using eco-friendly organic pesticides, solar energy, electric cars and reforestation will reduce amount of people who develop tumors. Our American lifestyles are large contributors to the health issues of today, cancer being among the greatest, if we were to take Li’s approach and apply it in other realms we may be able to drastically reduce the number of cancer diagnoses.  Though we want to be able to find cure for cancer, figure out how to stop the deadly disease, preventative health is the best health plan.  More initiatives like Li’s are needed to fight most diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, and obesity.  In order to eradicate cancer, our entire lifestyles have to change from the way we transport in the world, to how and where we get our food. Nixon’s “war on cancer” has led to the funding of billions of dollars in research and clinical studies but perhaps a wider perspective on how we live our lives is needed to truly destroy cancer.

 By: Erinn Williams

for more information visit: www.survivingmesothelioma.com  

Sources: 

Breakthrough Breast Cancer 

http://www.breakthrough.org.uk/  

http://www.Cancer.org

A Cancer Journal for Clinicians 

Otis Webb Brawley, MD, and Ted Gansler, MD, MBA, MPH

Cell phone use can increase possible cancer risk (Danielle Dellotoro,2011)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/05/31/who.cell.phones/index.html   

Can we eat to starve cancer? (William Li, 2010) 

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