Science Matters

Science is an incredibly important field of study.  Science affects our everyday lives and especially impacts people with cancer.  After losing an extremely close family friend to lung cancer, I can vouch for getting tested for cancer.  He had quit smoking 20 years to the day that he found out he was in the later stages of cancer and only lived for another 8 months. If he would have consistently gone to the doctor for screenings, he would have stood a much better chance than the death sentence he was delivered.  It would have been much easier to stop what he thought was a spell of bronchitis if he would have been to the doctor in the past year.

Thanks to scientific research, deaths due to cancer have steadily decreased since the 1990’s. Studies have shown that death rates have declined by almost 23 percent for men and 15 percent for women since 1990.  Without science, these rates would be showing an opposite trend. Doctors and patients have become more responsible about getting screened for cancer.  If a doctor finds cancer early in a patient, the chance for survival greatly increases. 

Scientific research is also making large strives in children with malignant cancers.  Scientists and doctors have increased the life expectancy of kids born with cancer.  In the mid-seventies less than 60 percent of babies born with cancer lived to see their fifth birthday. That number has since skyrocketed to the 83 percent that it is at now. Science has proven to save lives, especially in the field of cancer research, and will continue to improve life expectancy in our country. - Drew Bartlett