There is no doubt that when cancer is mentioned people tend to freeze up and panic. Although people are living longer today and there has been a lot of progress in the disease, that doesn’t make many people feel that much better when they learn they have it. But cancer research has come a long way, people are living for years with some forms of cancer and other forms now have cures. Here is a look at some of the major milestones throughout the decades.

1950s – This decade brought about many new findings linked to cancer. Studies showed for the first time a link between smoking and lung cancer. Researchers discovered the link between testosterone and estrogen to prostate and breast cancers. The end of that decade brought a chemotherapy drug used to treat many cancers and it was a treatment for colon cancer.

1960s – At the start of this decade the Pap smear was brought to the limelight with the American Cancer Society advocating its use. A 70 percent decrease in cervical and uterine cancer deaths were reported because of that simple test. This decade also brought to light the discovery of hereditary cancer family syndrome.

1970s – Right from the beginning of this decade it was announced that smoking was certainly linked to cancer and the president declared war on cancer and the National Cancer act was signed to establish a national research program to find a cure for cancer. Bone marrow transplants were pioneered, breast cancer research was pushed forward, and the first cancer causing gene, was found in bladder cancer. The development of a monoclonal antibody found during this decade led to several promising drugs manufactured decades later.

1980s – The eighties brought a lot of developments, including the discovery of the first virus that causes cancer. A guideline set for early detection in breast cancer was also released. It also brought the development for early screening and detection in prostate cancer. A discovery that lumpectomy and radiation was equivalent to a mastectomy in surviving breast cancer, and took many leaps in promising new cancer drugs, especially a compound called taxol that became the accepted therapy for ovarian cancer and in treating breast and lung cancers.

1990s – Between the end of the eighties and the start of the nineties, a race was on to discover more ways to suppress tumor growth, and the discovery of angiostatin and endoslatin were made. More attention to environmental cancer-causing agents like sun radiation and cigarette smoke were more closely tied to specific damage to genes. Stem cells to treat leukemia was first used, and the first breast cancer gene was discovered and was quickly followed by more. A study of secondhand smoke showed an increase in lung cancer deaths to nonsmokers. And, finally the first overall decline in cancer deaths is reported and new cases of cancer decline by the end of the nineties.

2000s – At the start of this new millennium, many trials were going on with therapy and drugs to help leukemia, shrinking tumors, and colon and head and neck cancers. Many new treatments and drugs were created and approved such as Gleevac for chronic myelogenous leukemia, Femara to treat advanced breast cancer, and a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. New treatments and discoveries helped with colon cancer as researchers found that a simple blood test helps to predict it and new drugs to treat it.

Cancer research has come a long way in fifty years and today many more people are surviving cancer and leading a happy life. In the past it was considered a death sentence when the word cancer was mentioned. Thanks to the many men and women who have dedicated their lives to research this killer and finding ways to prevent, treat, and cure this cancer it is no longer an automatic death sentence for many.

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Category: Health/Diseases and Conditions/Cancer
Keywords: cancer research, cancer research