It is slowly dawning on many of us that aggressive diagnostic testing to detect early cancers, and the often toxic, harmful treatment of cancers once they're diagnosed, are going to bankrupt the healthcare system - without making the slightest dent in how many cancers there are in the first place.

We often hear the following type of optimistic-sounding line from the cancer industry and their supporters: "The death rate from cancer has gone down in the last 25 years." Such a statement is nearly 100 percent true. Death rates from cancer have gone down, in the industrialized world only, in the last quarter century. It sounds impressive. It sounds reassuring. But this type of line is also very much a distortion of the truth.

Here's what that statement actually means: The number of people-per 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 people-who die from a cancer with which they have been diagnosed, has declined. In other words, if 100 out of every 10,000 people in Vancouver get cancer, the number of people who will actually die from their cancer is fewer now than it was 25 years ago.

This optimism doesn't reveal that for 50 years before the last quarter century, cancer deaths (the total number of deaths from cancer) were increasing.

Second, it doesn't say that the number of cancers that actually develop have been increasing during that entire time, and are still increasing.

Third, surviving cancer isn't always a benign experience; the treatment itself can be horrendous, the after-effects debilitating, and the chance of dying of either another cancer or of some other disease [such as heart disease] can be markedly increased.

Fourth, surviving cancer depends entirely on how you calculate "survival." For example, most cancer statistics define sur-vival as living for five years after the cancer was discovered. Yet one of the few studies of long-term survival from cancer shows that 17 years must pass before you can be certain that the cancer will not come back.

Fifth, propaganda about lowered cancer rates ignores the fact that with more aggressive diagnostic procedures and programs, cancer is often found at a much earlier stage of development. The result is someone living longer past diagnosis because diagnosis was early, not necessarily because the cancer was cured.

Statistics coming from the corporate sector are almost completely unreliable because so much money is at stake. Corporations exist solely to earn money for their shareholders, and when their bottom line is threatened, they feed us a line.

If you read a public statement about cancer, find out who is really behind it. If it's put out by a business that makes money from cancer diagnosis or treatment, ignore it; it's probably pure propaganda. If it's put out by healthcare professionals, treat it with caution if the professionals are part of the conventional diagnostic and treatment establishment, and especially if it's overly cheerful and optimistic. And if a statistic is presented by what appears to be a public interest or citizen-based group, check and see where their funding comes from.

All this may sound a bit discouraging and a lot cynical. But, there is good news. Increasingly, independent scientists, professionals, vast numbers of ordinary citizens, a few brave whistle-blowers and some courageous public officials are coming together and saying: "Enough already!" They are talking about solutions-prevention, self-directed change, non-toxic inexpensive remedies, and putting pressure on regulators to act on our behalf instead of for the interests of corporations.

The system is slowly changing for the better. And that's a line you can count on!

Warren Bell, MD, is a HANS member practicing in the heart of the Okanagan Valley. He's also President of the Association of Complementary and Integrative Physicians of BC.

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