Resources & Statistics

Survivor Stories

General Cancer

Breast cancer

Metastatic Breast Cancer

Iron and your health

The Western Medical system

     Drug information, interactions, and side effects

Integrative healing information

Books

  • Alchemy of Herbs, by Rosalee de la Forêt
  • The Anatomy of Hope, by Jerome Groopman, MD
  • Breasts: The Owner’s Manual, by Kristi Funk, MD
  • Detoxify or Die, by Sherry A. Rogers, MD
  • Eat to Beat Disease, by William W. Li, MD
  • The Healing Self, by Deepak Chopra, MD, Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD
  • Integrative Oncology, by Donald I. Abrams and Andrew T. Weil
  • The Metabolic Approach to Cancer, by Nasha Winters, Jess Higgins Kelley
  • Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds, by Kelly A. Turner, PhD
  • Remarkable Recovery, by Carlyle Hirshberg and Marc Ian Barasch
  • Thriving after Cancer, Lise N. Alschuler, ND, FABNO and Karolyn Gazella
  • Whatever Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Strong, by Kaiulani Facciani
  • What I did and do and why, by Kaiulani Facciani
  • You Can Say No to Chemo, by Laura Bond

Documentary Film

Statistics

As applies to me (my particular diagnosis as a woman in the US):

– Chance of getting cancer – 33%. Chance of getting breast cancer – 12%.

– 5 % of breast cancer is HR-/HER2+. Chance of brain mets then 30% of that.

– Chance of brain metastases being leptomeningeal 20%

If you combine all those probabilities (.12x.05x.3x.2=.036), the probability of me having HR-/HER2+ breast cancer with leptomeningeal carcinomatiosis is .036%. And my chance of long-term survival of LC brain is basically 0. Hah!

– Chance of brain metastases with overall breast cancer is 10-16%

– 20% of brain metastases are breast cancer primary

– Less than 20% of brain metastases survive a year

  • Breast Cancer, www.cancer.gov/research/progress/annual-report-nation/breast-cancer-in-women-infographic
  • Brain metastases: HER2, clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/13/6/1648
  • Breast cancer brain metastases, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657380
  • Leptomeningeal metastases BC www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3623833
  • Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499862

General Cancer

Highlights

Incidence

  • Rise in Cancer incidence US 1950-1990, all cancers 48%, breast 52%. Source: National Cancer Institute. SEER Cancer Statistics Review (Miller ete al. 1994)
  • Cancer cases from 1975 to 2020 are projected to have increased by >20%. The past, present, and future of cancer incidence in the United States: 1975 through 2020
  • The CDC projects new cancer cases to increase 21-24% between 2010 and 2020 to close to 2 million cases per year. Expected New Cancer Cases and Deaths in 2020,
  • Between 2000 and 2050, the number of new cancer patients diagnosed annually is expected to double. Cancer now affects 24 million people worldwide with over six million deaths each year. In the US, men and women have a 43% and 38% chance, respectively, of being diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3184418
  • Half of men and one third of women in the us will get cancer at some point. But only 1 in 20 is linked to genetics. (Source: WebMD)
  • An estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases diagnosed worldwide each year.
  • World Health Organization states that the number of cancer cases worldwide is expected to surge by 57 percent over the next twenty years.
  • The American Cancer Society estimates environmental factors account for 75%-80% of cancer cases and deaths in the United States, and hereditary factors make up the rest. Although most environmental risks can be attributed to lifestyle factors, such as smoking (30%) and a mixture of poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity (35%), there is still a significant burden from a range of environmental exposures. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization’s cancer research division, has classified 107 agents to be carcinogenic; including tobacco, asbestos, benzene, arsenic, ionizing radiation, and ultraviolet radiation.

Mortality

  • Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide (13%) and accounts for 7.4 million deaths worldwide annually. Cancer is the second biggest killer in the US, following heart disease. It’s estimated that one in four people in the U.S. will die of cancer. This year around 600,920 people will die from some form of cancer, which is about 1,650 people per day. Cancer will kill nearly 10 million people this year, amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/09/12/health/cancer-rates-increase-worldwide-study-intl/index.html

Sources

• The past, present, and future of cancer incidence in the United States: 1975 – 2020

• American Cancer Society

– Cancer Treatment & Survivorship Facts & Figures 2012-2017.

– Cancer Facts & Figures Publications, 2005-2019.

– Interactive Cancer Statistics Center

• Center for Disease Control. Actual and Projected Cancer Incidence Rates, United States, 1975 through 2020.

• International Association of Cancer Registries (IACR)

– Global Cancer Observatory, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Who Health Organization (WHO)

– Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Time Trends

– The GLOBOCAN database (September 2018) includes estimates of incidence, mortality and prevalence of 36 types of cancer and all cancers combined in 185 countries of the world. Estimates are presented for 2018, separately for each sex and for the 18 traditional age-groups. www.iacr.com.fr

– World Cancer Report 2014

• National Cancer Institute, cancer.gov

– Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, seer.cancer.gov

– Cancer Stat Facts, seer.cancer.gov/statfacts

– SEER Explorer: interactive website for statistics, seer.cancer.gov/explorer

– SEER Cancer Statistics Review 1975-2015, seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2015

Breast Cancer

Highlights

• According to the ACS…

– Breast cancer is 2nd most prevalent cancer among American women.

– One in eight U.S. women, or 12%, develop invasive breast cancer.

– 1 in every 1,000 men are at risk of breast cancer.

– 5-year relative survival for stage 0 or 1 breast cancer nearly 100%. For stage II, 5-year survival is about 93%, stage III breast cancers 72%. Metastatic, or stage IV breast cancers, have a 5-year relative survival rate of 22%.

• In 2019, there will be an estimated 271,270 new breast cancer cases diagnosed and 42,260 breast cancer deaths in the United States. (ACS), onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21551

• Here’s How Deadly Breast Cancer is For Women of Color in the U.S.

www.colorlines.com/content/heres-how-deadly-breast-cancer-women-color-us

Metastatic Breast Cancer

  • The median life expectancy with MBC is 3 years
  • Stage IV 5-year survival rate, according to…

NBCF 16%, 1-3% remission

NCDB 15%

NCI, 20%

CBCRP.org, 1-3% 10-15 years

  • 116 with MBC die each day.