Introduction
Cancer kills more than 1,500 Americans each day and is the second leading cause of death in America. Cancer is attributed to one in every four deaths, nationally, and accounts for at least one in every ten dollars spent on healthcare.
Cancer is a uniquely cellular disease affecting a cell’s blueprint –its DNA– which tells the cell how to grow, what to do, how it should reproduce and even when it should die. In the course of normal function the body’s cells grow, divide and die in an orderly way. When cells become cancerous, however, they typically grow and divide at much faster rates than normal. Moreover, most cancerous cells do not have normal life cycles and continue living after their normal, non-cancerous counterparts have died.
As cancerous cells grow and divide, they can rob normal, healthy cells of the nutrients they need to survive, crowding them out and impairing their ability to function. Often, as cancerous cells proliferate, they form a solid mass called a malignant tumor which displaces healthy, functioning cells. In other forms of cancer, like leukemia, the cancerous cells are blood cells or blood forming cells and flow throughout the body.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that there will be more than half a million cancer deaths and 1.4 million new cases of cancer in 2007 – a tragedy that affects every walk of life.
In addition to the staggering cost in terms of human life, the National Institutes of Health estimated that direct medical costs, combined with costs associated with lost productivity due to illness and premature death, were $209.9 billion in 2005.
And researchers continue to uncover new costs associated with cancer. In 2007, NCI researchers calculated costs associated with time spent actively receiving care—driving to the doctor’s office, sitting in waiting room, receiving treatment, getting blood tests and so on—at $2.3 billion.
Cancer Costs
Cancer kills more than 1,500 Americans each day and is the second leading cause of death in America. Cancer is attributed to one in every four deaths, nationally, and accounts for at least one in every ten dollars spent on healthcare.
The cost of treatment alone does not tell the whole story. According to the American Cancer Society, 2006 estimates peg direct medical costs (the total of all health expenditures) at $78.2 billion and the total estimated cost of cancer (which includes indirect morbidity and mortality costs) at $206.3 billion.
Lack of health care and other barriers to health care prevent many Americans from receiving the best possible health care. Medicare does not cover certain needed cancer medications, such as oral medicine commonly used to treat breast and prostate cancers.
- Approximately 17% of Americans under age 65 have no health insurance.
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Approximately 27% of individuals 65 and older have only Medicare coverage.
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Almost 16 million people (6%) were unable to get needed medical care due to cost.
In the near future it is expected that cancer costs will increase much faster than overall medical expenditures, with costs of treatment also increasing as equipment becomes more advanced, and more expensive treatments are adopted as standards of care.
References
American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts & Figures 2007
National Cancer Institute, Cancer Trends Progress Report -2007 Update - Costs of Cancer
Cancer Prevalence
The second leading cause of death in America, cancer kills more than 1,500 Americans each day. Cancer is attributed to one in every four deaths, nationally, and accounts for at least one in every ten dollars spent on healthcare.
In 2004 there were more than 10 million Americans living who at some point in their lives, were diagnosed with cancer. Few people in the United States have gone untouched, directly or indirectly, by its ravages.
Cancer prevalence is defined as the number of living individuals, or the percentage of living individuals, who have been diagnosed with cancer up to a given date.
Limited Duration Prevalence (LDP) [1] is calculated for a particular span of time; periods of 5, 10 or 29 years are common data set ranges and would represent the number of people diagnosed with cancer within a 5, 10 or 29 year period who are alive on the last date of each respective period. Data collection procedures were revised in 1975 therefore the latest full statistical analysis provides results from the period between 1975 and 2004.
Limited Duration Prevalence
|
Gender/s |
LDP, 1975-2004 |
| |
All Sites |
Male and Females |
10,133,875 |
|
Male |
4,719,465 |
Female |
5,414,410 |
| |
Brain & other Nervous Systems |
Male and Female |
100,542 |
|
Male |
53,857 |
Female |
46,685 |
| |
Lung and Bronchus |
Male and Female |
345,236 |
|
Male |
167,413 |
Female |
177,823 |
| |
Urinary Bladder |
Male and Female |
489,252 |
|
Male |
362,809 |
Female |
126,443 |
Source: National Cancer Institute, Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results, US Estimated Complete Prevalence Counts on 1/1/2004, All Ages, First Malignant Cancer Only, By Cancer Site, Sex and Race. |
Reference
National Cancer Institute: Statistical Research & Applications Branch - Overview of Cancer Prevalence Statistics.
Footnote 1. There are two kinds of prevalence often considered by cancer researchers, Limited Duration Prevalence and Complete Prevalence (CP). By and large, CP figures are unavailable since calculating CP requires data that is not generally available; data before 1973 is incomplete. Data collection was consolidated in 1975.
Cancer Screening and Diagnosis
Screening is the detection of cancer in otherwise asymptomatic patients. Its importance cannot be overlooked as cancer is often most successfully treated in its earliest stages, where treatments can be less aggressive, less invasive yet more effective. According to the National Cancer Institute, it is estimated that up to 35% of the premature deaths due to cancer could have been avoided by screening.
Clearly, with estimates that 559,560 Americans will die of cancer in 2007, the possibility of saving more than a third of those lives through screening is cause for great hope. That hope, however, must be moderated. Screening presents risks of its own, from false positives (and negatives) to damage due to invasive screening to screening actually contributing to carcinogenic exposure as in the case of repeated diagnostic X-rays. Moreover, the effectiveness of a given screening program as well as the costs associated with screening programs must be taken into account.
Once a cancer has been detected its existence must be confirmed through diagnosis. Like screening, diagnosis can also cause damage. Diagnosis requires direct the examination of the cells in question. A quantity of tissue is extracted from the person who has had a positive screening result, often by biopsy, a procedure that can be so invasive that it is sometimes classed as a major surgical procedure.
Despite the risk involved, diagnosis –specifically biopsy procedures –play an essential role in cancer treatment. Biopsied tissue can provide information about the histological type (kind of cancer) and the degree of dissimilarity to normal tissue. Furthermore, in the course of performing a biopsy on tumors, doctors often acquire information about tumor size and so are able to identify a cancer’s stage. Cancer type, degree of dissimilarity to normal tissue and stage are all factors considered in deciding upon a course of treatment.
References
National Cancer Institute: Cancer Screening Overview.
National Cancer Institute: Cancer as a Disease - Cancer Diagnosis.
Cancer Treatment
Cancer treatment can be divided into five main categories:
Surgery
Surgery involves the removal of all or part of a localized tumor. Often, nearby lymph tissue is removed as a preventative measure.
Radiation
Radiotherapy attempts to kill cancerous cells through the use of radiation. Radiation does not distinguish between healthy, normal cells and cells which are cancerous. Surrounding healthy tissue can be damaged.
Chemotherapy
By slowing or stopping the growth of cancerous cells, chemotherapy can ease, control or even cure some cancers. However, healthy cells whose growth and division rates are high, like hair can be adversely affected. Other side effects include nausea and vomiting.
Hormone Therapy
Because some cancers require hormones to flourish, stopping the production of the relevant hormones or interfering with their hormone receptor sites can kill or slow their growth. Hormones, however, are important chemical signalers in the body and manipulating hormone production or interfering with hormone receptor sites can cause side effects like nausea and weight gain.
Biological Therapy
It has been hypothesized that cancerous cells are not effectively targeted by the body’s immune system because of their similarity to normal cells. Biological therapies aim to stimulate the immune system to attack cancerous cells. Side effects can include rashes or swelling at injection sites, flu-like symptoms and lowered blood pressure.
Combination Therapies
Combination therapies can include some or all of the above therapies used in conjunction.
PhytoMedical’s approach is to design a compound which attacks cancer cells directly. Cancer cells typically divide faster than normal cells, have larger nuclei and more DNA than normal cells and are often more susceptible to drugs than normal cells. Therefore, one anticancer strategy is to design molecules that will block the replication of DNA. One such mechanism is “intercalation”, in which the drug inserts itself between adjacent base pairs and, in so doing, blocks DNA replication, and eventually leads to death of the cancer cell.
PhytoMedical’s strategy is to design molecules (“bis-intercalators”) that can intercalate simultaneously at two DNA sites, thus attacking and binding to the DNA of specific cancer cells in order to stop their replication and ultimately resulting in the death of the cancer cell.
Phytomedical's research involves the chemical synthesis of several variations of novel bis-acridines for cancer and evaluation. Depending on research outcomes, our plans are to fund various in vitro (test tube) and in vivo (animal) experiments that will involve the use of several commercially available human cancer cell lines covering key areas of concern such as glioblastoma (tumors related to the central nervous system, including but not limited to the brain, spinal cord and optic nerve), small cell lung, breast, kidney, pancreatic, and liver cancers. Our goal, based on the results of both the in vitro and in vivo tests, will involve identification of the key compound(s) that demonstrate the greatest anti-cancer activity per human cancer cell line.
Reference
National Cancer Institute - What You Need To Know About Cancer - An Overview.
All Sources and References Accessed on October 22, 2007.
