Nearly 40 percent of Americans receive a cancer diagnosis at some point in their lives. With treatment advances, more and more people are surviving cancer.
- The word “cancer” comes from the Latin word for crab, so named because early doctors observed tumors with extensions spreading into surrounding tissue, like the claws on a crab’s body.
- Cancer affects men, women and children alike. However, a man’s risk slightly outpaces a woman’s. Men have a 42 percent chance of developing cancer, while a woman’s odds are 38 percent.
- Once nearly always fatal, today cancer often responds successfully to treatment. The combined survival rate for all types of cancer is 65 percent. The rate, however, varies based on the type of cancer.
- The number of people surviving a cancer diagnosis has doubled since 1992 and is expected to climb to nearly 19 million by 2024.
- Researchers today study the DNA of cancer cells to develop new treatments that target precise parts of cancer cells, with less damage to the body’s healthy cells.
