WASHINGTON — There are more cancer survivors than ever in the United States — including many who were diagnosed after the cancer cells acquired the ability to spread.
Those with localized or non-invasive cancer have long had high survival rates. But in a new report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says two out of three patients with invasive cancer are now surviving five years or more.
“The numbers look good,” says Dr. Laurie Herscher a radiation oncologist with the Shady Grove Adventist Aquilino Cancer Center in Rockville, Maryland.
She notes the two most common forms of cancer in the United States also have the highest five-year survival rates: 97 percent for prostate cancer and 88 percent for breast cancer.
Herscher says they may have the best survival rates because there are such good screenings available, and both these forms of cancer are very treatable if caught early.
Locally, the survival statistics are similar to national trends, even though Washington, D.C. has one of the highest cancer diagnosis rates overall in the country.
The CDC did a state-by-state tally on incidence rates for all types of cancer. The best showing was 374 cases per 100,000 persons in New Mexico while D.C. — which was considered a state for statistics gathering — had 509 cases per 100,000 persons.
Still, regionwide, there are more survivors than ever. And that is prompting the medical community to rethink its long term approach to dealing with cancer patients.
“It’s kind of a paradigm shift in that we have to think about much more than getting someone through cancer treatment,” Herscher says.
She is currently the head of the Survivorship Committee at the Aquilino Cancer Center, coordinating and keeping tabs on cancer patients after their formal course of treatment is done.
Herscher says for many who lacked a healthy lifestyle, a diagnosis of cancer was a “wake-up call.” She says the goal in the survivor stage is to help them heal lingering emotional and physical scars, and ease their fears about a recurrence by empowering them to take control of their health.
