This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hello. I'm Dr Maurie Markman from City of Hope. I want to discuss a really important, massively global issue — global in the sense that I'm referring to the United States, but it's going to affect us [all]. This is really high-level, but the implications are profound. Maybe we have to change our thought processes about healthcare in general.
The paper, “Prevalence of Cancer Survivors in the United States,” was recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Here are the data, and then I'll say a few words about my thoughts on the massive implications.
You'd have to read this really interesting paper to look at where they got all the data, how they came up with the analyses, their statistics, etc. In January 2022, it was estimated that there are 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States.
It was estimated that that was going to grow from 2022 to 2030 — that's 6 years from now — from 18 million to 21.6 million. By 2040, 16 years from now, there will be 26 million cancer survivors. That's an increase of more than 40% compared with 2022. There will be a 40% increase in survivors to 26 million.
When you look at it in a little more detail, I think the true implications of those numbers start to become evident. The first is that in 2022, 70% of the 18.1 million cancer survivors that I highlighted had survived for more than 5 years.
We're not talking here about the details of what disease we're dealing with. We're not talking about how many people are on active therapy. We're not talking about how many people have truly high risk of being monitored monthly vs maybe yearly, but they're cancer survivors.
I'm going to tell you now that they're a very small percentage of the public, and surely members of the medical profession know that 11% — about 1 out of 10 — of those 18 million have survived a diagnosis of cancer for more than 25 years.
Remember that historically, cancer is a death sentence. You've read the classic literature; you might have even heard that in your own family. Cancer is death, and a painful death, even. If you look at it in a little more detail, break it down by females and males, it’s very interesting. If you look at the whole population, all Americans, aged 40-54 today, 3.6% of all women are cancer survivors. Of those aged 65-74, 14.5% of all women in this country today are cancer survivors.
If you look at the population of those aged 85 or over — as I get older, I'm looking at these populations, and there are many 100-year-old people today who are living wonderful lives — 36.4% of that population are cancer survivors.
Turn that to males. Age 40-54, 2.1% today are cancer survivors; age 65-74, 16% are cancer survivors; and 85 or older, 48.3%, or 1 of 2, are cancer survivors.
Today, and even more so in the future, a substantial proportion of members of society living in this country are and will be cancer survivors. They may be getting cancer therapy, they may be under active surveillance, or they may be under much more passive surveillance, but the bottom line is, they had cancer and they were treated for cancer.
What are the implications of this? What are the implications for individuals in terms of the cost of continued screening for recurrence? What is the impact of their prior therapies, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, on other diseases they may get, such as cardiac, renal, and pulmonary?
What are the implications of those other diseases on their cancer? What about this incredibly important, underserved area of geriatric medicine and oncology geriatrics? As we're dealing with an older population, a higher percentage of those individuals are cancer survivors; what are the implications? What are we going to do as a healthcare system, let alone society as a whole, to appropriately manage this population successfully in the future?
Wow — those are profound questions that I would argue we need to begin to consider. Thank you for your attention.
COMMENTARY
Cancer Survivors: A Rising Population With Big Implications
Maurie Markman, MD
DISCLOSURES
| December 30, 2024This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Hello. I'm Dr Maurie Markman from City of Hope. I want to discuss a really important, massively global issue — global in the sense that I'm referring to the United States, but it's going to affect us [all]. This is really high-level, but the implications are profound. Maybe we have to change our thought processes about healthcare in general.
The paper, “Prevalence of Cancer Survivors in the United States,” was recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Here are the data, and then I'll say a few words about my thoughts on the massive implications.
You'd have to read this really interesting paper to look at where they got all the data, how they came up with the analyses, their statistics, etc. In January 2022, it was estimated that there are 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States.
It was estimated that that was going to grow from 2022 to 2030 — that's 6 years from now — from 18 million to 21.6 million. By 2040, 16 years from now, there will be 26 million cancer survivors. That's an increase of more than 40% compared with 2022. There will be a 40% increase in survivors to 26 million.
When you look at it in a little more detail, I think the true implications of those numbers start to become evident. The first is that in 2022, 70% of the 18.1 million cancer survivors that I highlighted had survived for more than 5 years.
We're not talking here about the details of what disease we're dealing with. We're not talking about how many people are on active therapy. We're not talking about how many people have truly high risk of being monitored monthly vs maybe yearly, but they're cancer survivors.
I'm going to tell you now that they're a very small percentage of the public, and surely members of the medical profession know that 11% — about 1 out of 10 — of those 18 million have survived a diagnosis of cancer for more than 25 years.
Remember that historically, cancer is a death sentence. You've read the classic literature; you might have even heard that in your own family. Cancer is death, and a painful death, even. If you look at it in a little more detail, break it down by females and males, it’s very interesting. If you look at the whole population, all Americans, aged 40-54 today, 3.6% of all women are cancer survivors. Of those aged 65-74, 14.5% of all women in this country today are cancer survivors.
If you look at the population of those aged 85 or over — as I get older, I'm looking at these populations, and there are many 100-year-old people today who are living wonderful lives — 36.4% of that population are cancer survivors.
Turn that to males. Age 40-54, 2.1% today are cancer survivors; age 65-74, 16% are cancer survivors; and 85 or older, 48.3%, or 1 of 2, are cancer survivors.
Today, and even more so in the future, a substantial proportion of members of society living in this country are and will be cancer survivors. They may be getting cancer therapy, they may be under active surveillance, or they may be under much more passive surveillance, but the bottom line is, they had cancer and they were treated for cancer.
What are the implications of this? What are the implications for individuals in terms of the cost of continued screening for recurrence? What is the impact of their prior therapies, such as surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, on other diseases they may get, such as cardiac, renal, and pulmonary?
What are the implications of those other diseases on their cancer? What about this incredibly important, underserved area of geriatric medicine and oncology geriatrics? As we're dealing with an older population, a higher percentage of those individuals are cancer survivors; what are the implications? What are we going to do as a healthcare system, let alone society as a whole, to appropriately manage this population successfully in the future?
Wow — those are profound questions that I would argue we need to begin to consider. Thank you for your attention.
Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
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