Increase in Number of Cancer Survivors in The US

The number of people in the United States who have survived cancer is set to reach nearly 18 million in the next decade, up from 13.

The number of people in the United States who have survived cancer is set to reach nearly 18 million in the next decade, up from 13.7 million currently, said a US study out Thursday.

The number of survivors is growing because of better treatments and an ageing and expanding population, even as the overall rate of cancer is falling, it said.

Indian Pharma Slashes Costs of Cancer Drugs
Yusuf Hamied, chairman of the genetic drugs giant Cipla, who revolutionized AIDS treatment by slashing the cost of the drugs more than a decade ago, now does the same for cancer.

The research appears in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, and was compiled by the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.

Nearly half of US cancer survivors are 70 or older, and 64 percent were diagnosed five or more years ago, said the report.

The median, or midpoint age for patients at the time of diagnosis was 66.

Study Finds Liposuction Effective in Treating Submental Lymphedema in Patients With Head and Neck Cancer
A new study reveals that liposuction can be an effective mode of treating patients with a history of head and neck cancer who have persistent submental lymphedema.

Young cancer survivors were more rare -- only five percent of the US population that had beat cancer was younger than 40.

"There are 58,510 survivors of childhood cancer living in the United States, and an additional 12,060 children will be diagnosed in 2012," said the study.

Treatments for Lou Gehrig's Disease Via Anti-Cancer Drug from the 1960s
Scientists have revealed that new treatments for the incurable nerve disease known as Lou Gehrig's disease could be developed via a long-used anti-cancer drug.

The most common cancers among women in 2012 were breast (41 percent), uterine (eight percent), and colorectal (eight percent).

Among men, the most common were are prostate cancer (43 percent), colorectal cancer (nine percent), and melanoma (seven percent).

In the United States, there will be an estimated 1.6 million new cases of cancer in 2012 and 577,000 deaths, according to projections by the American Cancer Society.

Source-AFP