“These findings demonstrate a dramatic reduction in the frequency of death in recent years,” said lead study author Carole Santer of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Cancer survivors were older in their mid-60s and sicker in their late 50s.
Santer said the individual counselors at the early cancer centers who were behind the survival rates are silent as they are behind heart disease and stroke instead of cancer.
The program also makes more use of home monitoring and education, and oncologists and clinicians can re-evaluate patients when the cancer responds poorly.