3,014 People Are Alive Today Who Should Have Died - Why?

"Bush Hails Drop in U.S. Cancer Deaths"

President Bush on Wednesday hailed the downward trend in cancer deaths in the United States, a signal that medicine is making strides in the battling a disease that kills nearly 1,500 Americans a day. "This is the second consecutive year there was a drop in the number of cancer deaths in the United States," Bush said at the National Institutes of Health Laboratories. "And the drop this year was the steepest ever recorded."

This bit of encouraging news really requires little explanation on my part. If you still don't understand how to reduce your risk of dying of cancer, you need to read up and then wise up.

After a decline of 369 deaths from 2002 to 2003, the decrease from 2003 to 2004 was 3,014 -- or more than eight times greater, according to a review of U.S. death certificates by the American Cancer Society. The drop from 2002 to 2003 was the first annual decrease in total cancer deaths since 1930. But the decline was slight, and experts were hesitant to say whether it was a cause for celebration or just a statistical fluke. The trend seems to be real, Cancer Society officials said.

The biggest reason for the drop according to American Cancer Society officials is the fact that more Americans are undergoing colonoscopies, which can remove polyps before they become malignant. Screening for breast cancer and prostate cancer is also saving lives, as is the continued decrease in the number of suckers, I mean hapless victims of advertising, celebrity worship and peer pressure who smoke cigarettes.

3,014 fewer deaths from cancer in 2004 is reason for encouragement, but certainly for not complacency. That same year 261,757 more Americans died of cancer than all who were killed in World War II. Perhaps we should consider today's news as Sir Winston Churchill would:

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."