Cancer: task impossible? Depending on what measurements we use

It is better to admit failing to win the war against cancer than fail to admit it.

        The Wall Street Journal published an article by Bill Gates a couple of days ago. The heading is so striking that I cannot help reading the contents. The title is “my plan to fix the world’s biggest problems”. However, after I went through the paper, I was a little bit disappointed because what Mr. Gates had declared as great plan for resolving biggest problems is actually very basic. Mr. Gates described the process of solving problems as simple 4 stages “setting clear goals, choosing an approach, measuring results, and then using those measurements to continually refine our approach” and emphasized that measurements are extremely important and the key to fix the biggest problems in today’s world: poverty, disease, lack of education and so on. Although it sounds simple, what Mr. Gates had said is indeed instructive. Setting goals is easy. People who tend to make New Year’s resolution will be able to know how easy to set goals. Selecting an appropriate approach is harder and requires smart thinking. But they are not in the same street with measuring and subsequent refining in term of the measuring. Measuring enables us to know how close we are from the goal.

        Where are we on the road map of cancer research in the light of current measurements we adopted?

       The answer, according to today's starndard, is probably we stay where we were decades ago in cancer research. About forty years ago, the president Richard Nixon set the goal to eradicate cancer by signing the National Cancer Act in 1971. The war on cancer campaign also fosters mounting cancer research. However, cancer incidence and death rates, which are two main standards to measure cancer research, keep unchanged during the past 40 years. The measurements have told us that cancer remains a big burden for Unites States. Moreover, some cancers show increasing incidence and death rates in United States and other countries. 
        It may be smart for us to accept the fact that we failed to win the war on cancer based on today's measurements. Only by accepting this fact, we can make some adjustment to better control cancer.

          Once we admit the fact that we failed the war on cancer, we will be able to figure out what we should do next. The direction for cancer control should be averted to cancer diagnostics and cancer prevention both of which entail broad and deep understanding of cancer genetic factors and environmental factors.      

        We might also need to adjust the standard we used to measure cancer control. Incidence rate and death rate of cancer have been used as golden standard for measuring cancer situation but may mask what we have achieved in cancer research. New measurements should be adopted in evaluating cancer control. Early detection rate, for example, may be used as a standard to measure cancer control and incorporated in cancer statistics.    

        Due to the aging population and deteriorating environment, the world will suffer tougher cancer burden. However, if we follow the direction of cancer diagnostic and prevention and adopt new measurements for cancer control, we might witness a tremendous progression in cancer control.