In my 2 earlier blogs- April 26,2005, and May 14,2005 on this subject I stated that president Nixon's strategy in 1971 was to establish the NCI- National Cancer Institute- as one of the research branches of the NIH . The president then followed this legislation with an announcement that the USA is now declaring a " war on cancer ".
If one reviews the annual vital statistics in the USA from 1971 the data will show that the number of deaths from this dreaded human disease has been steadily increasing claiming today over half a million deaths annually and ranking just behind heart disease- the number one killer which claims around 1 million lives annually.
In Canada the statistics are worse because cancer is now the leading cause of death in Canada for all age groups overtaking heart disease- this in spite of the billions that we and other countries spend globally on cancer research. Canada is also a nation which has a publicly funded health care system.
Obviously the strategy that we and other nations with a similar health delivery system are using to fight this " war on cancer " is not working.
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