With new year comes new resolve in fight against cancer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - |
Overall, the number of people who develop cancer is dropping. This includes breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Lung cancer rates in women have leveled off, and the rate for men has declined 1.8 percent.
Cancer deaths also are declining, but not as fast as anyone would like. From 2002 through 2004, cancer death rates decreased 2.1 percent annually. According to the National Cancer Institute, that drop is nearly twice the decrease from 1993 to 2002.
The reasons for hope in the fight against cancer are found in places like Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. The Purdue Cancer Center is focusing on basic research, new drug development and early detection methods. It is one of only seven of the 63 nationally designated cancer centers that focuses on basic research. It works with other Purdue centers, many in the university's Discovery Park, as well as the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis
Together they have married engineering and medicine to combat cancer. They call it the Cancer Care Engineering Initiative, a team of 62 clinicians and scientists from IU and Purdue. The team consists of oncologists, health-services researchers, biologists, systems engineers, statisticians, infomatics specialists, analytical chemists, a visualization analytics team and researchers from the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis.
One of the team goals is to detect molecular signatures in blood for colorectal cancer - ideally, at very early stages of development.
Through the work of other researchers, such as Purdue distinguished chemistry professor Philip Low, new approaches have led to trials in lung and ovarian cancer treatment. Low has harnessed folate, which cancer cells crave, to deliver cancer drugs right where they are needed, saving healthy cells around them. Now Endocyte, a Purdue Research Park company based on Low's discovery, is conducting Phase II clinical trials with patients in the Lafayette area. If successful, the next step could be Food and Drug Administration approval for widespread use.
Several other researchers have experimental drugs in clinical trials. This year, Purdue researchers also developed a new technology for cancer detection using lasers to track and reveal tumor cells. Proteomics research, meanwhile, is helping identify markers in cancer cells.
These advances are made possible through determined commitment from researchers, funding agencies and donors.
The people committed to this research are passionate. It is a passion of mine as well. As a younger man, I had planned to enter a career in forestry. Then my 53-year-old father, Wallace Jay Ratliff, and my father-in-law, William "Jack" Harmonson, both lost their lives to cancer in a matter of six months. My destiny changed forever.
Since then, I have been fortunate to be involved in research that has led to breakthroughs in treatment and prevention. At Washington University in St. Louis, I was a member of the team that developed the prostate specific antigen test, more commonly known today as the PSA, which, combined with a digital rectal exam, is the most-used test to detect prostate cancer. I also was part of research efforts that led to a new treatment for bladder cancer.
Thanks to that PSA test, we can find prostate cancer very early. About 30 years ago, a third of the people with this disease died within five years. Now, thanks to early detection, the five-year survival rate is nearly 100 percent. This is a tremendous breakthrough, especially for African-American men, who are 2.5 times more likely to contract prostate cancer than white men.
My hope is that prevention and treatment for all cancers will be the defining accomplishment of the 21st century. Cancer claimed 556,902 Americans last year - almost a quarter of all Americans who died. The disease claimed more than the next five causes of death combined.
So with this new year, let us renew our resolve. There has been much progress. But there must be much more.
(Tim Ratliff is the director of the Purdue Cancer Center in West Lafayette.)
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