Hi everyone, my name is Charles Walker and I am a senior
biology major. I am taking this class because I have always been interested in
cancer in general and because I feel that my future career (though I don’t know
what that will be) will require me to know something about different types of
cancer.
Over the years, cancer survival rates have drastically
increased. For instance, the 5 year relative survival rate for all cancers
diagnosed from 2002-2008 has increased to 68%, 19% higher than it was between 1975
and 1977 (cancer.org). This table from the American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts & Figures 2013 shows
how much the 5-year survival rates for cancer have generally increased while
highlighting the lower survival rates of some cancers.
Because the 5-survival rates for so many cancers have
significantly increased since 1975, I am interested in learning how new
medicines combined with greater understandings of the mechanisms of different
cancers were able to facilitate these increases. I am also interested in what
the future holds for cancer prognosis and treatment with the incorporation of
new technologies, such as whole-genome sequencing.
