Moving Forward…
Progress in our understanding of cancer, coupled with increased detection and treatment abilities, has resulted in a real and continuing decline in cancer mortality rates. Cancer deaths in the United States have declined — for the first time since 1930, the year our country began compiling statistics on its toll. This comes despite a rapidly aging population. In 1971, at the time of the National Cancer Act, there were three million cancer survivors. Today, there are more than 10 million.
…as patient survival tells a compelling story of the promise for continued advances in reducing the burden of cancer.
One of the many places where research success is translated to real hope for cancer patients is the NIH Clinical Center, the world’s largest clinical research complex. These quotations were excerpted from the many testimonials the Clinical Center receives each year from patients, clinicians, and families.
“Do you know what you were doing five years ago? I do — you were saving my life. It will be five years soon that I will be in remission. I’m a mother of two little children, have a full career, and I feel very good.”
“I don’t know how widely it is known that you save lives at the National Cancer Institute — offering hope and treatment to people, like my son, who have run out of options. Patrick was deteriorating… having correctly diagnosed PCNS Lymphoma, you offered to develop a state-of-the-art chemotherapy regimen, using new medications. Were it not for the quick action in diagnosing and then treating his Lymphoma, Patrick would not now be rebuilding his life with a healthy future ahead of him.”
