Few guys who've aged enough to graduate into the workaday world have escaped the sorrow of having a buddy or loved one diagnosed with cancer. So let's pause for a few minutes and take some reassurance in the facts. First of all, we've become much better at detecting cancer. Today, we find many more prostate cancers early enough to cure them. Thus, although more cases are discovered, the odds of surviving cancer have improved greatly.
Cigarettes also skew the cancer data.
If you leave out lung cancer, the mortality rate from cancer actually dropped by 14 percent from 1950 to 1990. Many cancers that used to be deadly seldom are today. Deaths from testicle cancer, for example, have declined to less than one-half percent of the cases discovered. We deserve congratulations on the progress made, but the job is far from done. The campaigns against lung and prostate cancer should be top priority.