Towards the end of last year there were articles appearing in the press about how the incidence of cancer was decreasing. President Bush went to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to publicly take credit for the one half of one percent drop. But what the NCI won’t tell you is that the Veterans Administration has recently stopped reporting cancer incidents. Their reason is to protect the privacy rights of veterans.
It is estimated that this has caused an under reporting of new cancer cases by as much as 70,000 annually. So the official figures for the annual US incidence of major killers such as prostate, lung, and colorectal cancer are probably significantly underestimated. This under reporting makes one really question if there is a true decrease in cancer rates.
Terry Pfau DO, HMD