RALEIGH, NC. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — A cancer diagnosis doesn’t always mean what it used to. New data from the American Cancer Society shows the U.S. cancer death rate has fallen significantly since 1991, preventing nearly five million deaths. More than 18 million Americans are now living after a cancer diagnosis, and that number is expected to surpass 22 million by 2030.
At 68, Jerome Stracke is doing what he’s done since he was five: sketching, creating, carving.
“I’ve loved to just carve wood,” he told Ivanhoe.
Art has always been part of him. What he didn’t expect was cancer becoming part of his story too. Last year, a routine blood test revealed multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.
“If I wasn’t diagnosed, I wouldn’t know I was sick,” Jerome recalled.
His experience reflects a bigger shift in cancer care. According to the American Cancer Society, the U.S. cancer death rate has dropped 34% since 1991. UNC School of Medicine hematologist & oncologist Haley Simpson, MD, PhD, believes it’s just the beginning.
“The prognosis, or what you can expect going forward as far as how long you’ll live, and the quality of that time you have, has just improved dramatically,” she said.
For both men and women, early detection, targeted drugs, immunotherapy, and precision medicine, tailored to each person’s cancer, are driving the decrease in death rates.
“Especially immunotherapy has been a game changer… ways of engineering our immune system directly to fight the cancer,” Dr. Simpson explained.
Jerome began immunotherapy and a daily oral drug called lenalidomide. Ten months later, his numbers were “unquantifiable,” a sign of remission. He says one thing his doctor said made all the difference.
“He said, ‘You’re not sick.’ He said, ‘You just have cancer.’ And that made a big difference for me,” Jerome told Ivanhoe.
“I’m letting them know, I’m expecting you to live for decades to come with this disease,” said Dr. Simpson.
But while cancer survival is improving overall, the progress is not equal. The American Cancer Society reports Black Americans still have the highest cancer death rates in the country, about 19% higher for Black men and 12% higher for Black women compared to white Americans. Minority and underserved communities are also more likely to be diagnosed at later stages and have less access to screening, as well as less access to new treatments and clinical trials. Researchers say closing those gaps could save thousands more lives in the years ahead.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmidt, Videographer; & Roque Correa, Editor.
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* For More Information, Contact: Nancy Bostrom
Manager of Research & National News at UNC Health
nancy.bostrom@unchealth.unc.edu
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