Cancer causes extraordinary suffering in human life. Today the global cancer burden is rising. In 2005, an estimated 11 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with cancer; of them, more than half will die of the disease. In the United States in 2005, an estimated 1.4 million people will be diagnosed with cancer, and 570,000 will die from it. The economic burden worldwide is incalculable; investing in cancer prevention now will pay enormous dividends in the future.

Despite advancements in cancer treatment and education, cancer has become the leading killer of Americans under the age of 85 years – recently surpassing heart disease.  During the past 25 years, the death rate attributable to heart disease has fallen by more than 50 percent -- a decrease achieved through progress in preventing and treating heart disease.
Strang’s researchers see no reason why the successes seen in heart disease cannot be achieved in preventing cancer. Eventually, cancer’s complexity will yield to diligent and persistent science. It is only a matter of time.

Our scientists are elucidating the underlying molecular, cellular, genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors that cause cancers to form and evolve. Ultimately, those same factors will show us how to prevent its initiation and spread. New nutritional and pharmaceutical strategies are significantly slowing tumor growth, improving the benefits of novel interventions, and successfully enhancing cancer prevention and treatment.

Our research has shown how to find and stop cancers before they start. – in a sense, to prevent small brush fires before they rage into forest-consuming blazes. Our new and expanding programs are helping to move the world into a new era – an era of early detection, intervention, and prevention.

Our aim is simple and clear: To prevent cancer globally and impact public health by saving lives.  The time is right because a wealth of new biological techniques and approaches provide the opportunity for a fresh assault on cancer prevention in the 21st Century.  For example, mapping of the human genome, new disciplines of genomics, proteomics, DNA microarrays, computational biology, and high-throughput screening methods, are among the new approaches to cancer prevention.
A rational basis for progress in the scientific study of cancer prevention is now emerging: The underlying mechanisms of genetic and environmental risk factors in cancer are becoming better understood. The biological changes that underlie precancerous lesions are amenable to investigation. Pharmacological and nutritional compounds that prevent cancer are evolving from a better understanding of the basic processes that lead to cancer.

With your assistance, Strang can help to do for cancer research, education, and prevention, what has been done already for heart disease.

Today Strang is uniquely positioned with its expanding research programs and scientific staff to lead the charge on cancer prevention during the 21st century.  Our work has the potential to create practical, life-saving applications, and there is no better time for us to build on our history as the oldest and the preeminent cancer prevention research center in the United States.

Key Cancer Statistics

Bad News…

• 10 million new cancer cases were diagnosed globally in 2000; by 2020, that figure is projected to rise by 50 percent to 15 million.
• Of the nearly 56 million deaths worldwide from all causes in 2000, malignant tumors accounted for 12 per cent.
• In many countries, cancer accounts for more than a quarter of all deaths. 
• 5.3 million men and 4.7 million women developed a malignant tumor and altogether 6.2 million died from the disease in 2000.
• Infectious agents account for 23 percent of cancers in developing nations.
• Highest cancer rates: United States, Italy, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Canada and France.  Lowest cancer rates: Northern Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Good News…

• One-third of all cancers globally are preventable.
• Avoiding cancer-causing agents (including tobacco, some industrial products, and other dietary carcinogens) substantially cuts cancer risk.
• Early detection and treatment have lowered breast cancer death rates in North America, Western Europe, and Australia; in most developed countries, five-year survival rates now exceed 75 percent.
• Screening for cancer of the breast, colon, prostate, cervix, and skin, among others, substantially reduces deaths from cancer. For example, the Pap test* for cervical cancer has proven to be the single best cancer screening procedure available.
• A healthy diet matters: Eating more vegetables and fruits, and fewer high-calorie, fatty foods (including meat) cuts a person’s cancer risk. Foods rich in fat, and animal protein, combined with low physical activity, raise risks for many cancers; in colon cancer, genetic factors influence fewer than five percent of all cases.
• Exercise works: Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle raise cancer risks – a preventable factor.
• Tobacco, diet, and untreated infections accounted for at least 40 percent of all new cases of cancer and deaths in 2000 – all potentially preventable factors.

Source: The World Health Organization, World Cancer Report (2003)