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Real-World Evidence from Population-Based Cancer Registry Data
Published in Harry Yang, Binbing Yu, Real-World Evidence in Drug Development and Evaluation, 2021
The war against cancer is a continual effort to find a cure [1, 2]. It is widely considered a priority for the society and government as cancer remains a major cause of death. Throughout the world, about 14 million new cancer cases and 8 million cancer deaths occur each year and cancer burden increases as the population ages. Despite the tremendous progress in cancer research and breakthroughs in cancer treatments, including targeted therapies and the recent emergence of cancer immunotherapies, many cancers still remain a huge challenge, and the poor survival prognosis indicates tremendous unmet patients' needs. The regulatory approval of new cancer drugs is built on a benefit-risk assessment. However, with the advances in genetic and other molecular and clinical subclassifications of cancers, the number of patients available for a specific clinical trial may be too few for a reliable evaluation of efficacy and safety. The traditional approaches to cancer drug development and approval may be complemented with real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) [3].
The Human Cancer Situation
Published in Samuel C. Morris, Cancer Risk Assessment, 2020
A great deal of attention has been placed on cancer survival rates. Survival is the length of time between diagnosis and death and has been used primarily as a measure of effectiveness of treatment. All else being equal, introduction of a better treatment method should increase survival. The “war against cancer” has largely been directed to finding cures. As an operational definition, a person was considered cured if he survived 5 years. In the 1930s, the cure rate was 20%; in the 1940s, 25%; 1950-1970, 33%; 1976-1982, 50% (Hutter, 1988). The trend is encouraging, although overall survival rates are only a crude indicator. There are large differences in survival among different cancers; a shift in the incidence of the different cancers can affect the survival trend without changing the underlying phenomena.
Don’t breathe a word
Published in Alan Bleakley, Routledge handbook of the medical humanities, 2019
By the 19th century, Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) was using the same heroic militaristic language, describing invading armies laying siege to the body that becomes a battlefield. A “war against cancer” was first described in a lead article in the British Medical Journal in 1904. The “fight against cancer” was likened to imperialist domination, the disease described as “darkest Africa” waiting to be discovered and conquered. Later, cancer cells were identified with Bolsheviks, as “anarchic,” threatening the stability of the body. Richard Nixon declared a full-scale “war on cancer” in signing the National Cancer Act of 1971, launching a $1.6 billion “federal crusade” to “conquer” cancer, using the most “aggressive” treatments to beat the “invading, killer cells.”
Long-Term Glucose Restriction with or without β-Hydroxybutyrate Enrichment Distinctively Alters Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition-Related Signalings in Ovarian Cancer Cells
Published in Nutrition and Cancer, 2021
Hossein Ghahremani, Saeedeh Nabati, Hanieh Tahmori, Tahmineh Peirouvi, Majid Sirati-Sabet, Siamak Salami
Despite the worldwide war on cancer, it remains a serious threat to health, particularly in Western countries and the incidence of cancer is increasing in the decades ahead, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. Death from cancer is more than all coronary heart disease or all deaths from strokes (1). Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer and the eighth killer cancer in women. The highest incidence of this disease is reported from developed countries (2). There are direct associations of ovarian cancer risk with height and BMI, as well as possible relations with selected dietary factors and a possible inverse association with physical activity (3). Epithelial ovarian, germ cell and sex cord/stromal tumors are the major types of ovarian cancer, but epithelial ovarian tumors typically constitute 80–90% of ovarian malignancies. As most cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, the prognosis is poor, with 5‐year survival rates of less than 40%, and annually more than 100000 women are estimated to die from the disease (4).
Clinical translation of the assets of biomedical engineering – a retrospective analysis with looks to the future
Published in Expert Review of Medical Devices, 2019
Yijin Ren, Paul H. Fagette, Connie L. Hall, Herman Broers, David W. Grainger, Henny C. Van Der Mei, Henk J. Busscher
At the same time, pharmaceutical development faced new challenges. A growing emphasis on cancer research and treatment, beginning in earnest in the late 1960s, with the rise of the American Cancer Society lobby and USA President Nixon’s touted ‘War on Cancer’, saw the development of powerful new tools for research including genetic engineering for RNA replication and recombinant DNA. Monoclonal antibodies in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation treatment allowed for individualized therapy in several cancer patients [34]. Major drug companies quickly assimilated all the latest imaging, computer, and polymerase chain reaction techniques into research and development pipelines. One appreciable success was the use of recombinant DNA to produce human insulin [35]. Another highly visible effort, led by the World Health Organization, resulted in the virtual elimination of smallpox by the end of the decade [36]. Other widely used drugs developed during this period, following the prevention and control approach, included statins [37] for cholesterol control and the equally important antihypertensive drugs [38].
Psychosocial consequences of potential overdiagnosis in prostate cancer a qualitative interview study
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, 2020
Sigrid Brisson Nielsen, Olivia Spalletta, Mads Aage Toft Kristensen, John Brodersen
In ‘Illness as Metaphor’, Sontag wrote that the controlling metaphors in descriptions of cancer were drawn from warfare. Cancer cells do not simply multiply, they are invasive. Treatment aims to kill cancer and there is a war on cancer in our society. [25]. Therefore, through the metaphors of cancer we are not just giving these men a diagnosis of prostate cancer. We are sending them into war. However, the surveillance programmes are not like a regular cancer treatment where we can fight and kill the cancer cells. In the case of these particular men, it might be more accurate to say that they find themselves in a cold war where they never know when the enemy will strike, but they have to be ready if or when it happens.