An Uncontrolled Problem

Abstract

In the US, cancer deaths and death rates increased year after year since records have been kept, reaching peaks in the early 1990s. Indeed, while 12,769 Americans were reported to have died of cancer in 1900 or 3.7 % of total 343,217 deaths, 158,335 cancer deaths were recorded in 1940, 553,768 in 2001, and 597,689 in 2010, or 11.2 %, 23 %, and 24 % of total deaths (1,417,269, 2,416,425, and 2,468,435, respectively). Although older statistics lack accuracy, they reveal that, while cancer was the eighth cause of death (64/100,000) in 1900, it has risen to be second only to heart disease since 1940, reaching a rate of 186/1000,000 in 2010 [315]. This progressive rise in cancer deaths is linked to four major factors: increasing population (Fig. 6.1), increasing longevity, and a shift to an older population (Fig. 6.2), placing more individuals at risk of exposure to carcinogens for longer periods, and hence, an increased probability of developing cancer.

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.

– Maori Proverb