Today we know that nearly half of all global adult cancer deaths are preventable, and research is revealing new risk factors every day. At the same time, cancer is afflicting more people, earlier in life, than ever before, and is predicted to soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death. Spending on cancer treatment has ballooned to hundreds of billions each year, threatening to bankrupt our healthcare system. Preventing cancer is more possible, and more imperative than ever before.
Because of our advancements, a smaller percentage of patients are dying of cancer, and far more people are living with it. Yet even with CAR-T and immunotherapy, for the first time in history, my generation will live shorter lives than our parents, fueled by a roiling epidemic of young adult cancer. For many patients, we are winning the battle. But what about the war? Chemotherapy and radiation can wreak havoc on the heart and lungs decades down the line, and even cause new “secondary” cancers to arise. Immunotherapies, which are much better tolerated, result in autoimmune targeting of the thyroid or adrenal glands.
Even CAR-T is largely only administered in a hospital, because most patients developed a powerful immune response that can land them in the intensive care unit, and some have even died. Other tumor types, like glioblastoma or pancreatic cancer, have retained their dismal prognoses despite the billions of dollars in research funding that we’ve thrown at them. And while countless dollars and hours are funneled toward cutting-edge therapies, we remain utterly clueless about what’s causing the cancer epidemic afflicting our young adults. Is it skyrocketing rates of obesity, processed foods, microplastics, COVID-19, or something else entirely that we haven’t yet discovered? These are questions seldom raised and seldom answered.
While extending lives, we’re ignoring the origins of a brewing crisis. In our era of mindboggling, exorbitant therapeutic advancements, prevention remains the best medicine, and yet it’s the aspect of oncology for which we devote the least time and money.
