The Challenge of Cancer

The battle against cancer has been waged for decades, and while patient outcomes have improved due to new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, the human and economic toll remains huge and is growing.

In the year 2006, there will be approximately 1,400,000 Americans diagnosed with cancer. More than 500,000 Americans are expected to die from cancer this year. In 2004, cancer treatment costs were $72.1 billion. Internationally, the picture is similar. Globally, 7.6 million individuals died from cancer in the year 2005. With an aging population, the number of cancer cases is likely to rise appreciably, relative to the overall current population.

Cancer has proven to be an extraordinarily strong enemy. Biologically, the group of diseases that we identify as cancer are distinguished by great complexity and multiple levels of "redundancy" that enable the malignant processes to avoid attacks by pharmaceutical agents and to re-invade the body in different ways and in different locations. Furthermore, as cancer patients sometimes simultaneously face other conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease in addition to their cancer, the challenge of identifying an effective treatment strategy becomes all the more complex.

While progress against cancer continues each year, the challenge remains a daunting one: to dramatically improve our approaches to detection, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the second largest disease killer in the nation.