HP Innovation Journal Issue 14: Spring 2020 | Page 60

FROM
SCIENCE
FICTION TO
SUCCESSFUL
TREATMENTS
Mortality rates from cancer
are dropping dramatically, and
breakthrough technologies have
the potential to reduce them even
further this decade and beyond.
BY MICHAEL C. KELLER
Nothing prepares you for a cancer diagnosis. I
didn’t even have any symptoms when I got mine.
A sonographer, routinely checking on the health of my
carotid arteries with a mobile ultrasound cart, noticed
an enlarged thyroid on the periphery of her screen. A
few clumps of cells had turned against me and started
to multiply.
a positive story to share. Deaths from cancer are on the
decline thanks to better detection methods, more early
screenings, behavior changes like quitting smoking, and
rapidly advancing treatments. The latest data show that
since 1991, the cancer death rate has fallen by 29% in
the US, and from 2016 to 2017, it dropped by 2.2%—the
largest single-year decline ever.
Years ago, nobody would have been able to discover my
problem until the disease had spread. And to diagnose
me, they would’ve had to perform an invasive biopsy that
itself carries risks. But thanks to that little diagnostic
machine, I began on a treatment path that has left me
cancer-free for nearly a year now. But there are still sobering statistics to temper the good
I’m lucky to be one of millions of cancer survivors with grueling treatments.
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HP Innovation Journal Issue 14
news. In 2020, the American Cancer Society estimates,
doctors will diagnose 1.8 million people with cancer in
the US alone, where it’s still the second-leading cause of
death after heart disease. More than 600,000 Americans
die from cancer every year, and millions must endure