The NCI analysts say better diagnosis accounts for part, but not all, of the increase. These data hide significant differences between races. Survival rates are thought to reflect socio-economic status. Among blacks cancer tends to be at an advanced stage when it is first detected, compared to whites, which partially explains why black survival rates are poorer. Numerous studies have shown that environmental factors are far more important than genetic, inherited factors.
Cancer rates differ from country to country.
When people migrate from one country to another, within a generation or two their cancer rates have changed from those of their country of origin to those of their new homeland. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of money to be made treating cancer, and little money to be made preventing cancer. And so cancer prevention today gets about one penny out of every dollar spent on cancer research. So long as we continue to bathe ourselves in carcinogens in air, water, and food, and in chemicals that degrade our immune systems, more of us each passing year will have to learn to live with cancer. We would like to continue to provide this service free.