The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that in the year 2000 alone, over 563,000 Americans died of cancer2. That's ten times as many people as our nation lost in a decade of fighting in Vietnam3. To put it in perspective, over 1,540 people die from cancer every day, more than one a minute. Still, the government continually claims we're making progress; that a cure is just around the corner. Although the rhetoric may be hopeful, the government's official figures tell a different story. Rather than supporting assertions that a cure is imminent, they show just how hollow that claim really is.

Since 1973, the National Cancer Institute has conducted its Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER)4. The SEER program is described by NCI as: "… the most authoritative source of information on cancer incidence and survival in the United States5."

Fair enough. But what does SEER show?

According to the SEER data, between 1990 and 1997, cancer deaths from the fifteen most common forms declined eight-tenths of a percent6. This might seem like tangible, albeit miniscule evidence of progress, but statistics can be deceiving. The SEER data also show that the incidence of cancer during that time also declined by an identical eight-tenths of a percent7, this due largely to the drop in smoking related cancers. But the fall-off in smoking-related cancer has nothing to do with improved treatments. Rather, it is simply a reflection of the fact that fewer people smoke. But even this tells only part of the story.

When you examine the change in the mortality rates for each of the fifteen types of cancer included in the SEER statistics, the death rate for five of them -- one-third of the total -- actually increased8.

What is perhaps most startling, however, is the change in cancer incidence and mortality among older Americans. Most people know that our population is aging. Indeed, by the year 2050 there will be more Americans over the age of 65 than under 189. But what they don't know is that the "age-adjusted" rate for cancer deaths among older Americans has skyrocketed. In 1950, the "age-adjusted" rate for cancer was 158 per 100,00010. According to the NCI, it is now 166.9 per 100,000. That's an increase of 5.6%11. And it can only get worse.