Editor's Note

Winning the War on Cancer?

October 29, 2008 RSS Feed Print

We do try to keep a sense of perspective around here. Despite the media din these days, it's worth remembering that there are some other stories at least as important as presidential elections and stock market crashes. Like a cure for cancer.

No, really. I know you've heard this before. The 40-year war on one of mankind's most enduring plagues has made measurable but frustratingly slow progress. Headlines about promising studies and supposed breakthroughs have still not amounted to a comprehensive theory of how to stop cancer from killing. Amid the fear, heartbreak, and false hope that attach to the word "cancer," one would be justified in treating the latest news with skepticism.

But there is good reason to think that we may have truly turned a corner, as our cover story, "Breaking Cancers Code," lays out. It is "an epiphany in medicine," writes our health editor, Bernadine Healy, a physician and cancer survivor herself. Within 10 to 20 years, we should be able to consider cancer a curable or manageable disease.

Sure, you're thinking: Ten to 20 years. Another pie-in-the-sky prediction. But we believe there really is something different this time. The answer is in the human genome. Medical science has made phenomenal progress in mapping and understanding genes and mutations, including the ones that cause cells to grow out of control. The challenge is the scale: It's now clear that each cancer must be treated on a patient-by-patient basis. But that's already happening, with successful new drugs and procedures accelerating rapidly.

As always, we try to give you the story from a policy and a personal angle. The cover package is just part of a huge archive of cancer-related information that we've compiled (along with thousands of pages of health topics). This includes our online ranking of the nation's top cancer centers (which you can find at health.usnews.com/cancerhospitals) as well as the best information about the various kinds of cancer and their treatments from experts at those centers (health.usnews.com/cancer). We know that curing cancer is a crucial societal issue but an infinitely more urgent crisis for those affected by the disease.

I'm interested in your thoughts on our coverage of the issue and the progress, or lack of it, in the war on cancer. Do you think this is just another false hope, or have we truly turned a corner? E-mail me at editor@usnews.com or join the comment fray below.

—Brian Kelly

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cancer

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My daughter was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma in June of 2008 at the age of 14 years old. She was affected in the proximity of the end of the spine and close to the rectal area. She was a stage 3 but with no mestatis. After 5 1/2 weeks of brutal radiation to those areas, blood transfusions, operations to insert a feeding tube via her stomach, a port via her chest and a procedure to lift her ovaries to hopefully shield them from permanent damage....she is now on her second to last chemo. admit. and thankfully I guess you could say she is a lucky one. Alhough she will forever have side effects that include nerve damage to her feet and legs that as of right now require her to wear braces on her feet to be able to walk properly. This is due to one of the chemo. drugs known as Vincristine. She also has trouble with her hands when trying to open things or tie them or even button her shirt. Her prognosis is good but she will also forvever be scarred by the monster that robbed her of her childhood and made her feel pain and fear. She will NEVER be the same happy, outgoing, bubbly girl that we had before CHILDHOOD CANCER!!!!!

I will say a prayer everynight that a cure will come along that will put hope and joy into every parent and child that is struggling with the mind numbing pain of childhood cancer and relief into the hearts of the parents and children that would never have experience it.

Rebecca of TX 12:54AM January 18, 2009

Children's lives are unscripted: blank pages filled with hope and promise. In a normal life, the American child is expected to learn to read and write, tie their shoes, learn to drive and grow up. This same child no longer has to worry about many childhood diseases like the mumps, rubella and even the chicken pox due to the miracle of modern vaccinations. Depending on their interests, the pages in their book of life are filled with childhood firsts: first day of school, a swim meet victory, a holiday band concert, the prom and high school graduation. The media helps celebrate these rites of passage. There is an unpublished chapter in the American childhood story: those kids with cancer. Perhaps photos of sick kids don't sell papers or draw high ratings. It is not easy to witness their suffering. Even the National Cancer Institute, in its report dated Dec.2 2008, avoided the controversial topic. While declines in cancer incidence and death are true for adults, childhood cancer continues to be on the rise. The NCI also does not mention that it has cut the budget for funding of Pediatric Cancer for the past 5 years. The NCI does not even maintain a data base for pediatric cancer. How could the news media get a sense of the problem without government statistics?

We must be careful of statistics. Words like "rare" and "good cure rate" should not be associated with childhood cancer. Cancer is still the number #1 disease killer of children. Yes, car accidents, suicide and drug overdoses displace it when children become teens. The fact remains that it kills more kids than any other disease. Secondly, statistically, more kids get leukemia than any other cancer and than the cure rate has increased dramatically to 80% in the past decade. Sadly, the cure rate for other cancers has shown little or no improvment. And there are no statistics of what happen to children five years after treatment with complications and recurrence. Doctors are just now compiling anecdotal evidence of the long-term complications they suffer. In an era of No Child Left Behind, there are 42 children diagnosed daily with cancer. These kids are being left behind, abandoned to fight cancer with old adult therapies not created to treat a child's growing body. The appalling lack of funding and media attention to this growing problem is an American tragedy. To a child suffering from any cancer, statistics are meaningless. They just want to feel better and start writing the next chapter in their book.

I know this because my daughter was diagnosed with ALL Leukemia on March 14, 2007. Her active chemotherapy treatment is scheduled to end May 21, 2009. Her courage and strength, like that of other cancer kids, inspires me every day to help these kids. As for the cost-return argument, these kids represent the promise and hope for the American future. We can't afford to leave them behind. Please give them a voice and publish their chapter.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/fionamonahan

Sherry Monahan of PA 1:15PM December 19, 2008

Dear Brian, Please consider doing an article on "The Need For Funding In Pediatric Cancer Research", too many innocent children are dying, right here in the USA of cancer! We are supposed to take care of our children, but without research dollars, we can't. They are our FUTURE, and we NEED to increase research money for PEDIATRIC CANCER, for it is just as important, if not more, than other cancers. Children are our future, we need to help save them, not just QUIETLY, let them die. Please do your part in this devastating battle, and feature an article on the for Pediatric Cancer Research Funding and HELP raise AWARENESS about this disease. It is out there and can strike any family at any time, maybe your child or someone you know, no one is IMMUNE to cancer. While children who have this disease DON"T deserve it, THEY DO DESREVE OUR HELP!!!!! Thank you for your interset in helping this cause, Jamie Cataldi

Jamie Cataldi of PA 9:46AM December 03, 2008

Editor's Note

Brian Kelly was named editor of U.S.News & World Report in April 2007, nine years after joining the magazine. With more than 30 years of journalism experience, including covering Capitol Hill, politics, and the presidency both as a beat reporter and as an editor, Kelly is one of the nation’s most experienced magazine editors in steering national and international news content.

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