World Cancer Day Highlights Progress Made

A Cookeville Regional Cancer Expert said World Cancer Day gives us the chance to reflect on the progress made in fighting cancers.

Radiation Oncologist Algis Sidrys said while cancer remains a serious challenge, a diagnosis no longer means a life sentence. Sidrys said unlike twenty years ago, many cases can now be controlled through modern medicine. He said one striking example is the advancement of immunotherapy in treating HER2-positive breast cancer cases.

“Cancer that carries the HER2 marker, which is about fifteen percent of breast cancers, that used to be a very bad prognostic indicator,” Sidrys said. “And when that medication came out it literally turned lives around for many women.”

Sidrys said diagnostic measures have also increased through the decades. World Cancer Day is marked each February 4 to raise worldwide attention to cancer.

Sidrys said mammograms for breast cancer are now more accurate and CAT scans have become the preferred method over chest X-rays. Sidrys also said this enables doctors to detect cancer at earlier stages which in turn boosts survival rates.

“Cat Scans of the chest can find cancers much earlier than a chest x-ray would, and also this has been shown to improve survival,” Sidrys said. “Especially when you find a lung cancer when it’s half an inch in size rather than two or three as it used to be.”

Sidrys, who has been in the field since 1985, said advancements in cancer research, both treatment and diagnosis take time. Sidrys said in addition to immunotherapy, targeted antibodies are slowly making a difference in cancer treatment and should make waves within ten years.

“Diseases that twenty years ago, people had potentially 3 months left from diagnosis,” Sidrys said. “In those same diseases now we can be talking about living fairly normal lives for years.”