Is it too late for prevention?
Cancer researchers forecast a 45% increase in the number of new cancer cases over the next 20 years.
The report published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and abstracted by Reuters describes a 67% increase in the number of adults older than 65, and it is this group that is at greatest risk for a cancer diagnosis. Can anything be done to stop this oncogenic tsunami? Screening and prevention programs should be the answer, but realistically when has the American public embraced prevention? Do we need reminding about the obesity epidemic?
I tweet almost daily about the role of diet, exercise, and lifestyle as being the pillars of prevention but all too often it falls on deaf ears. My cancer patients get it; they embrace it. They use the diagnosis as biologic alarm clock telling them to clean up their act. But again this is often too late.
To make matters worse, we all know there is a coming manpower shortage in medicine, especially in medical oncology. Today 40% of practicing oncologists are older than 55 and they expect to retire in the next 10 years. ASCO estimates we will have a shortfall of 3800 docs by 2030. Job security for all the wrong reasons.
