Prevention more effective than treatment in reducing cancer mortality

Over the past 45 years, nearly six million deaths have been averted thanks to the prevention, screening and treatment of five types of cancer. Although many therapeutic advances have been made, it is above all prevention and early detection that have helped save the most lives.Cancer mortality rates have fallen significantly in recent decades. Smoking cessation initiatives, cancer screening programs, including mammography and colonoscopy, and targeted therapies have proven to be the most effective strategies, according to modelling carried out by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S., the results of which were recently published in JAMA Oncology.In particular, these measures are said to have improved the prognosis for five types of cancer: breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate.“Many people believe that new treatments are the main cause of the decrease in mortality for these cancers. It's amazing how much prevention and screening contribute to reducing mortality,” said Katrina A. B Goddard (PhD), co-author of the study and director of the division of Cancer Control at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, in a press release. Different cancersIn fact, the vast majority of deaths avoided—eight out of 10—are due to prevention and screening. Smoking cessation is the prevention measure that saved the most lives between 1975 and 2020. It is estimated that 3.45 million lung cancer deaths have been prevented by this measure alone.Other interventions have proved more effective, depending on the type of cancer. In the case of breast cancer, 75% of deaths averted are attributable to advances in treatment, saving just over a million lives. Mammography screening, for its part, helped prevent 25% of breast cancer deaths.In the case of prostate cancer, prostate-specific antigen testing and new treatments contributed equally to the 360,000 deaths averted. Pap and HPV screening for cervical cancer, and the removal of precancerous lesions, have saved 160,000 lives.In the case of colorectal cancer, of the 940,000 deaths averted, 79% are associated with screening and removal of precancerous polyps, and 21% are due to new treatments.The researchers caution, however, that these results do not necessarily apply to other types of cancer for which there are few or no effective prevention, screening or treatment measures.“We must continue to develop approaches and strategies in these three spheres,” said Dr. Goddard. “It's not just a question of treatments, and it's not just through prevention that we will reduce mortality.”The study is available in JAMA Oncology.

Prevention more effective than treatment in reducing cancer mortality

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