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Cancer takes the lives of more than half a million Americans each year, accounting for nearly twenty percent of all deaths in this country. It is the hope of millions that a cure to the disease will be discovered in our lifetime. Interestingly, however, several studies have indicated that curing cancer would have a minimal effect upon the national life expectancy.
According to the US Census Bureau the average life expectancy in the United States is 78.2 years – 75.6 years for males and 80.2 years for females. However, according to one report, “Total eradication of cancer by curative and preventative interventions would ultimately result in a gain of about 2.5 years in the average life expectancy in the general population”.
This relatively meager gain stems from the fact that cancer is primarily a disease of the aged. For example: a seventy old man has roughly a 1000 times greater chance of dying from prostate cancer than a ten year old boy. Because cancer strikes late in life, curing the disease will lead to only modest gains in average national life expectancy.
This does not mean that seeking to cure cancer is a futile endeavor. The study quoted above continues, “… but for the one in four Americans who would have died from cancer, the gain in life expectancy would range from 10 to 15 years”. There are a great many Americans to whom these years would be cherished.
For more info: A very interesting report pertaining to national life expectancy and causes of death was compiled by the CDC.
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