How Many People Get Chemo A Year?

Question

i want to know how many people get chemo a year!

i want real numbers plz!

and if you can tell me the scientific name for chemo???

Answer 1

Ehhh, there is no real number. Things such as chemo must be kept secret in most cases, and doctors will only release an 'estimation', which in 2008, is tens of millions. Probably closing to a hundred million at this point.

The scientific name for chemo is Chemotherapy.

There is also several different types of Chemo - Radiation, oral, etc etc....  

Answer 2

Interesting question

It is not true that 90% of all new cancer patients each year receive chemotherapy.  

The majority that are cured are cured by the surgeons.  They deserve the credit.

Since you want numbers, here are the data from the ACS - -

American Cancer Society predictions for 2008:

Men diagnosed with cancer - 745,180

Women diagnosed with cancer - 692,000

Total new cancer diagnoses = 1,437,180

Deaths from cancer in men 2008 - 294,120

Deaths from cancer in women 2008 - 271,530

Total deaths 565,650 = 39% of the new cases number

Probably - almost all of the 565,650 people expected to die from malignancies this year will have received chemotherapy - even though it is expensive, toxic, and non-curative in many of these cases - depending on the type of cancer being treated.  The vast majority of people in the U.S. with advanced malignancies want to buy time even if it only months.  This is understandable - but very, very expensive when response rates are low and cures are not possible.

Probably - more than half of patients diagnosed with breast cancer will have been treated with preventive chemotherapy, so add about 100,000.  

For colon cancer, adjuvant chemotherapy is also used to increase the surgical cure rate, so add a bit less than 100,000.

Adjunctive chemotherapy will be used in many lung cancer patients, but most of these will be in the deceased group which has already been counted.

[It is much better to prevent lung cancer by not smoking than to treat it.]

Most patients with leukemias and lymphomas will receive chemo.

Many patients with bladder, and rectal cancer will be given adjuvant chemo with surgery and/or radiation therapy.

Ovarian cancer patient usually receive chemo plus surgery.

Chemo will be tried for many pancreatic cancer patients even though it does not work very well in this type of malignancy.  Many pancreatic cancer patients will be in the the expired group for the year.

Maybe 100,000 more for all of these latter types of cancer.

My estimate for 2008 is ~ 850,000 people getting chemo for this year.  You will find no exact data.

Some may not receive treatment for lack of funds - although no one in my practice went without treatment due to inability to pay.  

The med student who said that RT (radiation therapy) is a type of chemotherapy is not correct.  Chemotherapeutic drugs are by definition chemical agents - not radiation.  The last time I counted, there were over 75 drugs used as chemotherapy agents for cancers.

To give you an idea how we are doing with surgery, chemo, and radiation, here are the data from the ACS re: five year survivals - -

Five year survival for all types of cancer 66%

Breast  cancer 89%

Colon cancer 65%

Leukemia 50%

Lung cancers 16%

Melanoma 92%

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 64%

Ovarian cancer 45%

Pancreatic cancer 5%

Prostate cancer 99%

Rectal cancer 66%

Urinary bladder cancer 81%

Note that a five year survival is not a cure in all cases, but it is a very good start.

Note, for those who ask when there will be "a cure for cancer," is that over 60% of cancers (not including skin cancers) ARE already being cured.  You are not asking this, but it is amazing how many people ask about a "cure for cancer" - as if it is one disease.

Good, thoughtful question!

An added note for the people on this site who claim that doctors push chemotherapy on their patients to make money.  My experience was that it was often difficult to talk people out of taking chemotherapy even at the end stages of malignant diseases.  People understandably do not like their doctors to "give up" as they perceive it.  Families are even more demanding.  Patients were often more willing to stop treatment than their family members.  This will become an increasing issue as either presidential candidate pushes his ideas for reducing medical expenditures.

Answer 3

I thought Spreedog gave a fascinating answer, and wondered if there were any way that I could quote his/her information on a website?  

I know it came from the American Cancer Society - but was succinct and written in lay-man's language.

Verite R.

Answer 4

Nobody tracks the "real numbers" but it estimated that one million people in the United States, per year, receive chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is not just one thing..it simply refers to the chemical treatment (medication) of cancer.  There are dozens of different drugs used on a wide variety of schedules, depending on the type of cancer being treated.

Answer 5

About one in four of all people get cancer at some point in their lives.  There are currently about 1.5 million new cases of cancer each year in the US, and it's safe to assume that over 90% of them get some kind of chemotherapy.