VolunteerVoice For and about volunteers with Cancer Council NSW
Summer Edition December 2014
A single cure for cancer? By Associate Professor Freddy Sitas
Rumour has it there is a single cure for cancer locked away from those who need it. This is one of the most common cancer myths people search for. But, how can this be? Cancer is not one, but hundreds of diseases, each type different from the other, and each causes a whole set of different problems, which must be treated accordingly.
There may be no magic pill for all cancers, but prevention, detection and treatment for most cancer types is evolving, improving and saving thousands of Australians each year. But, it’s important to know that we are making progress on cancer. More people are surviving the disease than ever before, treatments are getting better, and we are now far better set up to support cancer patients and their loved ones. Today, we have almost 30 per cent less cancer deaths in Australia than in the late 80s – this translates to 61,000 cancer deaths being avoided over these 20 years, 61,000 less families having heard the devastating news that a loved one had been lost to cancer. What is important to know is that this has been due to a huge amount of research here in Australia and globally with many of Cancer Council’s partners. It’s also due to breakthroughs in new treatments and beefed-up prevention program commitments. After all, the adage that ‘prevention is better than cure’ still rings true. The late 1980s was a pivotal point in the cancer fight, when Australia introduced national screening programs, national prevention awareness campaigns and, in 1996, finally recognised cancer as a national health priority – investing in research, treatment, information and support. Educating our nation about cancer prevention has been a huge game-changer. People now know the risks of smoking, drinking alcohol, lying in the sun, and eating fatty and unhealthy junk food. Armed with this knowledge people can now make informed choices and cut their cancer and other disease risks significantly.
Australia’s key game-changers over the last few decades also include the introduction of national screening and vaccination programs. However, a plethora of confusing messages about the cancer burden leaves the impression that interventions are not working. The Cancer Council Research Report of June 2013 cancercouncil.com.au/79378/research/researchnews/research-report-newsletter-issue-22june-2013/, however, clearly highlights the huge amount of progress made, with about 8,000 Australians alive this year who would otherwise have been dead from cancer 20 years ago, a reduction of 30 percent. The time period reviewed in this study featured widespread implementation of many cancer programs. The full success of many of the interventions is still to be seen. Australia has come a long way, but we can’t rest on our laurels. That is why our new aspirational goal is to reduce deaths from cancer by 50 percent over the next 20 years (see Cancer Council’s Strategic Intent 2014-2018 at cancercouncil.com.au/strategicintent-2014-2018). As world leaders in many areas of cancer research and interventions, we at Cancer Council need to continue with this. We also need to keep up our successful global collaborations to discover more preventative measures, earlier detection methods, and improved treatments to reduce the See the cancer burden in Australia inside middle and further afield. pages of this Visit cancercouncil.com. edition for au/48957/research/ the pull-out research-news/ section research-reportReduce your newsletter/researchcancer risk. newsletters/ to read more of our Research Reports.
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