Explaining Cancer

There are over 10 million cancer survivors today in America, and the disease is no longer considered a "death sentence."

During the past 20 years cancer survival rates have improved about 1% each year, driven by biotech and its new anti-cancer drugs. Before 1986 there were limited gains in survival rates.

The survival rates of all cancer types combined was 50% in 1977, 53% in 1986, and 66% in 2002.

Annual research spending on breast cancer – almost $14,000 for each breast cancer death - is 13x more than annual research spending on lung cancer.

The disparities in annual research funding is represented as following: less than $2,000 per patient is spent on lung cancer death is spent on research, less than $12,000 is spent per prostate cancer death, and nearly $14,000 is spent per breast cancer death.