Deaths from cancer and new cancer cases have decreased slightly in the past few years. It's the first time the statistics have declined over an extended period and the best piece of news yet to come out of the nation's 38-year-old "war on cancer." Despite scientists' early optimism that the discovery of an actual cancer cure was imminent, most recent gains have come instead from earlier detection and cancer-prevention achievements, especially lower smoking rates. Those gains have prompted calls for a shift in federal cancer programs toward prevention and detection and away from research, which has been funded much more generously. Prevention proponents say focusing more on prevention and detection makes sense because cancer biology now demonstrates that individuals' cancers vary so widely and contain so many cell mutations that new, widely effective treatments will be even harder to come by than previously expected.

Marcia Clemmitt is a veteran social-policy reporter who joined CQ Researcher after serving as editor in chief of Medicine and Health, a Washington-based industry newsletter, and staff writer for The Scientist. She has also been a high school math and physics teacher. She holds a bachelor's degree in arts and sciences from St. Johns College, Annapolis, and a masters degree in English from Georgetown University.