Lourdes Monje moved to Philadelphia at age 25 to switch careers and become a teacher. But then a trip to the doctor to investigate a lump, turned into a stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis.
"Everything shifted from that point on," they say. (Monje identifies as nonbinary.) "Everything became about making sure that the cancer didn't keep spreading, knowing that it had already spread so quickly."
Monje felt devastated, but their oncologist explained that new treatments were much more effective than a generation ago, and that proved true: The new targeted therapies for breast cancer started working. The drugs have beaten back all but one tumor in Monje's lung.
The American Association for Cancer Research annual report, released Wednesday, points to a rapidly shifting — and mixed — disease landscape. On one hand, scientific advances are helping identify and treat cancer. Death rates are down by a third between 1991 and 2021, according to the report, which shares the latest data on cancer incidence, mortality, and survivorship as well as updates on cancer research. But, at the same time, cancer is also becoming more common — and it's affecting people at younger ages.
Four years after their diagnosis, Monje, now 29, is teaching part time, and grateful for stability and the potential of many years left to live.
"I feel like my quality of life is pretty good…considering I thought I was going to die," Monje says.
Monje's story is an example of both the good and bad news when it comes to cancer. People in their situation are able to access life-prolonging new treatments unavailable a generation ago, yet cancer incidence is increasing, especially among young adults.
Jane Figueiredo, a researcher at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles and one of the co-authors of the report, says treatments and better detection methods have made even highly lethal cancers like lung or melanoma much more survivable. The report notes that from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved 15 new anticancer treatments.
"New therapies, including immunotherapies, had been very successful across a number of different cancers," she says.
Similarly, tools like artificial intelligence are able to scan patient databases, to identify common features of cancers, for example, making it easier to identify existing medicines that might target a person's specific disease.
In other words, says Figueiredo, never before has cancer science moved so swiftly toward finding new treatments.
But, at the same time, increased rates of obesity and alcohol consumption and environmental factors, for example, are likely driving up cancer rates substantially among young people under the age of 50.
In the U.S., 40% of all cancers are associated with modifiable risk factors, according to the report, including excess alcohol use.
Cancers like colorectal cancer are becoming more common and more lethal among the young.
"It's very concerning; these are individuals that are in the prime of their life," Figueiredo says.
Cancer can no longer be thought of as a disease for older people. "These are individuals that are trying to advance their careers. They may be caring for children or family members, trying to save money, and they often don't recognize some of their symptoms."
All these trends also mean there are more Americans living with, and surviving cancer. Three decades ago, survivorship was relatively rare; cancer survivors made up 1.4% of the population three decades ago, but now make up 5%. That's the equivalent of 18 million Americans living with a cancer diagnosis in their past.
Copyright 2024 NPR
