For the entirety of our species’ history, our approach to cancer has largely been to react, to design new therapies and better combinations of treatments. This energy has certainly been well-spent, but what if we didn’t have to use treatment at all? Or what if we could minimize the use of aggressive therapies? Prevention and screening represent two under-appreciated pillars of cancer care, and we’re using this final installment in our cancer miniseries to show some appreciation. To grasp the impact that screening and prevention can have, we also need to consider the global landscape of cancer prevalence and incidence - where is it decreasing? Where is it on the rise? Where can intervention or prevention make an impact? As we’ve shown over these four episodes, science and medicine has accumulated a wealth of information about cancer - but the striking racial and socioeconomic disparities in cancer incidence and mortality in the US and around the world demonstrates that that knowledge has not been applied equally. Any proposal to reduce the global cancer burden must address the systemic issues driving these disparities. Tune in for a thought-provoking reflection on the status of cancer today.
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