Not anything I have, thank goodness, but we all know some people that have had cancer of some kind, and many of them died from it. M’lady’s brother died of renal cell carcinoma (kidney) in March, after a miserable but valiant struggle for 2 ½ years after a (high) stage 4 diagnosis spread to his spine and hips. Dad died of pancreatic cancer 3 months after it was diagnosed and just short of his 85th birthday, this after late onset diabetes at age 81 and his meticulous attention to caring for it. I sometimes bitterly joke that he was the healthiest one in the family until he got sick and died. Perhaps his doctor should have given him more meticulous attention, but it is history now.
A good friend died in his 40s of brain cancer he thought he might have contracted from time spent in high ship towers near strong Navy radar. His father died of throat cancer, after a life of smoking I believe. A former co-worker’s mother died of throat cancer when he was about 14. An older gentleman up the street currently has hepato-cellular carcinoma (liver) and is hanging in there with extensive treatments. A very good friend my age had cancer, beat it, and is living a healthy, active life. Of course we’ve all heard of breast cancer, testicular cancer (bicyclist Lance Armstrong), u-name-it.
Sooo many different kinds of cancer. It boggles the mind. Cancer is the 2nd leading cause of death in the U.S. Following is a portion of a chart (a few years old but close enough for government work, as they say) from CDC leading causes of death 2005
Table B. Percentage of total deaths, 2005
Type Death - Number Deaths – Percent of total
... All causes 2,448,017 - 100.0
1 Diseases of heart 652,091 - 26.6
2 Malignant neoplasms (Cancers) 559,312- 22.8
3 Cerebrovascular diseases (Stroke) 143,579 - 5.9
4 Chronic lower respiratory diseases 130,933 - 5.3
5 Accidents (unintentional injuries) 117,809 - 4.8
6 Diabetes mellitus 75,119 - 3.1
7 Alzheimer's disease 71,599 - 2.9
8 Influenza and pneumonia 63,001 - 2.6
9 Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome,nephrosis 43,901 - 1.8
10 Septicemia 34,136 - 1.4
11 Intentional self-harm (suicide) 32,637 - 1.3
12 Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis 27,530 - 1.1
13 Essential (primary) hypertension and
hypertensive renal disease 24,902 - 1.0
14 Parkinson's disease 19,544 - 0.8
15 Assault (homicide) 18,124 - 0.7
... All other causes (Residual) 433,800 - 7.7
As you can see Heart Disease takes a lion's share first with 26.6%, Cancers are close behind at 22.8% of all deaths.
Following are the major types of cancer (table from same source):
Table 10. Number of deaths from 113 selected causes: United States, 2005
Malignant neoplasms (C00-C97) 559,312
Malignant neoplasms of lip, oral cavity and pharynx
(C00-C14) 7,773
Malignant neoplasm of esophagus (C15) 13,499
Malignant neoplasm of stomach (C16) 11,514
Malignant neoplasms of colon, rectum and anus
(C18-C21) 53,252
Malignant neoplasms of liver and intrahepatic bile
ducts (C22) 16,076
Malignant neoplasm of pancreas (C25) 32,760
Malignant neoplasm of larynx (C32) 3,797
Malignant neoplasms of trachea, bronchus and lung
(C33-C34) 159,292
Malignant melanoma of skin (C43) 8,345
Malignant neoplasm of breast (C50) 41,491
Malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri (C53) 3,924
Malignant neoplasms of corpus uteri and uterus, part
unspecified (C54-C55) 7,096
Malignant neoplasm of ovary (C56) 14,787
Malignant neoplasm of prostate (C61) 28,905
Malignant neoplasms of kidney and renal pelvis
(C64-C65) 12,517
Malignant neoplasm of bladder (C67) 13,253
Malignant neoplasms of meninges, brain and other
parts of central nervous system (C70-C72) 13,152
Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, hematopoietic and
related tissue (C81-C96) 55,028
Hodgkin's disease (C81) 1,272
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (C82-C85) 20,873
Leukemia (C91-C95) 21,623
Multiple myeloma and immunoproliferative
neoplasms (C88,C90) 11,200
Other and unspecified malignant neoplasms of
lymphoid, hematopoietic and related tissue (C96) 60
All other and unspecified malignant neoplasms
(C17,C23-C24,C26-C31,C37-C41,C44-C49,C51-
C52,C57-C60,C62-C63,C66,C68-C69,C73-C80,
C97) 62,851
(Apologies for the poor formatting of the previous data.)
Here is a thorough document for 2008:
There is a LOT of information out there. (Google is your friend.)
I’m all for free market capitalism in the research and development of cancer cures, but if the government really feels it must throw bailout money at someone, cancer (and heart disease, Parkinson’s, MS, et al) would be a good place to start.
According to the article On front line in cancer fight “A record 861 cancer drugs are in the research pipeline…”
What can we do? Contribute, run, help a friend, contribute. We can beat this.
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