A black senior woman with cancer is wearing a scarf on her head. Her adult daughter is giving her a hug. Both women are smiling with gratitude and hope for recovery.
The cancer mortality rate in America is dropping.
Cancer deaths have declined 29% in the past three decades, including a 2.2% drop in 2017, the largest single-year decline since recordkeeping began in 1930, according to the American Cancer Society.
“I hope it gives great hope that what we’re doing is making progress and moving the needle,” said Dr. Franklin Chen, a hematologist and principal investigator of multiple clinical research trials at Novant Health Cancer Institute – Forsyth. “The progress we see reflects the commitment from patients, physicians and policymakers throughout the country, in addition to the science behind it.”
Chen said several factors contribute to the decline:
- Patients and communities are better informed.
- Physicians can provide improved diagnostics and treatments, specifically in the care of patients with lung cancer and melanoma.
- Fewer people are smoking.
- More people are seeking appropriate screenings, such as mammograms, colonoscopies and low-dose computed tomography (CT) scans for lung cancer.
- Advances have been made in targeted drugs and immunotherapy, which is the process of using a patient’s immune system to fight cancer.
“While we focus on and praise the research and therapies, we also have to credit those millions of selfless patients who have made this progress possible through participation in studies across the U.S.,” Chen said.
Through clinical trials, doctors determine whether new treatments are safe and effective, and if they work better than current treatments. Clinical trials also help find new ways to prevent and detect cancer.
“For years, patients had to travel far from home to seek out the newest treatments and clinical trials,” Chen said. “Now our patients have access to these trials close to home.”
Talk with your doctor to determine if a clinical trial could be right for you. Call the Novant Health Oncology Research Institute in Charlotte (704-384-5369) or the Novant Health Clinical Research Institute in Winston-Salem (316-277-0910) to learn more about current trial participation opportunities.
Novant Health cancer patients and their caregivers have also benefitted from the Edward I. and Agnes B. Weisiger Cancer Center in Charlotte, which opened in the fall of 2020.
“All these new treatments and innovations are only as good as they are accessible,” Chen said. “Our focus is to bring the most innovative standard of care to the community locally. Charlotte is a robust community, so why not be able to offer the latest, whether it be optimizing the standard of care or a clinical trial or research for the community here?”
