HEALTH REPORT - Rise in Number of Cancer Survivors

HEALTH REPORT - Rise in Number of Cancer Survivors²
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, July 07, 2004

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease³. In the past, it was often considered a death sentence. But many patients now live longer because of improvements⁴ in discovery and treatment.

Researchers say death rates in the United States from all cancers combined have fallen for thirty years. Survival⁵ rates have increased for most of the top fifteen cancers in both men and women, and for cancers in children.

The National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied the number of cancer survivors. A cancer survivor¹ is defined⁶ as anyone has been found to have cancer. This would include current patients.

The study covered the period from nineteen-seventy-one to two-thousand-one. The researchers found there are three times as many cancer survivors today as there were thirty years ago. In nineteen-seventy-one, the United States had about three-million cancer survivors. Today there are about ten-million.

The study also found that sixty-four percent of adults with cancer can expect to still be alive in five years. Thirty years ago, the five-year survival rate was fifty percent. The government wants to increase the five-year survival rate to seventy-percent by two-thousand-ten.

Breast cancer survivors are the largest group of survivors, at twenty-two percent. That group is followed by survivors of prostate cancer and colorectal cancer.

The risk of cancer increases with age. The report says the majority of survivors are sixty-five years and older.

But it says medical improvements have also helped children with cancer live much longer. Researchers say eighty percent of children with cancer will survive at least five years after the discovery. About seventy-five percent will survive at least ten years.

In the nineteen-seventies, the five-year survival rate for children was about fifty percent. In the nineteen-sixties, most children did not survive cancer.Researchers say they expect more improvements in cancer treatment in the future. In fact, they say traditional cancer-prevention programs are not enough anymore. They say public health programs should also aim to support the growing numbers of cancer survivors and their families.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk.

1 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

4 improvements   

增加或修改( improvement的名词复数 )； 改进； 改善； 改良

参考例句：

• improvements in efficiency at the factory 工厂效率的提高
• They've spent a lot of money on home improvements. 他们花了很多钱装修家居。

5 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

6 defined   

adj 定义的; 清晰的

参考例句：

• These categories are not well defined. 这些类别划分得不太明确。
• The powers of a judge are defined by law. 法官的权限是由法律规定的。