Time to Make Conquering Alzheimer's a National Priority

In February of this year, it was revealed that for the first time in seventy years, the number of cancer deaths in the United States dropped. It represented the first indication that the war on cancer first declared by President Richard Nixon was starting to be won. As a February 6 article in the Chicago Sun-Times noted:

The war on cancer was launched in 1971 by President Richard Nixon. "The same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon should be turned toward conquering this dread disease," Nixon proclaimed.

Thirty-five years and billions of dollars later, the war remains far from won. There were 556,902 cancer deaths in the United States in 2003. Cancer kills 1,500 Americans a day and is the second most common cause of death, exceeded only by heart disease.

Many researchers have stopped talking about achieving Nixon's goal of curing cancer. Still, there has been steady progress, at least in some cancers. For example, about 85 percent of children now survive leukemia, which once was a death sentence.

In other cancers, there has been little or no progress. Only 3 percent of patients with glioblastoma brain cancer, the type that killed Chicago sportscaster Tim Weigel, survive five years.

Screening tests such as mammograms for breast cancer, PSA tests (prostate cancer) and colonoscopies (colon cancer) have enabled doctors to detect cancer at an earlier stage, when it's more treatable.

There also have been improvements in surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and other treatments.

These are among other trends reported in Cancer Facts and Figures:

About 10 million Americans have survived or are fighting cancer.

About 5 percent to 10 percent of all cancers are strongly hereditary. About 6 percent are caused by pollutants.

Slightly fewer than one in two men and a little more than one in three women have a lifetime risk of developing cancer.

About 76 percent of cancers are diagnosed in people 55 and older.

One reason that it's taken so long to defeat cancer, of course, is that the term--cancer--applies to not just one malady, but many. However, there is reason to be hopeful about this war being won.

More recently, medical science, common sense, and prayer have yielded victories over another deadly, admittedly less multifarious disease: AIDS.

These examples should hearten us to declare war on yet another disease scourge: Alzheimer's. Writing in today's Washington Post, Robert Essner says that the stakes are too high not to make the cure of Alzheimer's a national priority.

Alzheimer's doesn't have to be an inevitable part of aging. It is a disease for which research can find a cure, or at least a more effective treatment. In that way, it could be like HIV-AIDS -- a disease that, for most sufferers, went from a lethal diagnosis to a treatable chronic condition within six years of its discovery. One breakthrough AIDS drug rapidly led to another, because we mobilized pandemic-strength muscle against it. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration created review and approval processes that helped new therapies for AIDS reach people who needed them years ahead of what would have otherwise been possible.

The FDA now needs to give the same priority status to drugs for Alzheimer's as it has for AIDS and cancer treatments. And, the federal government needs to designate Alzheimer's as a No. 1 research priority.

If we don't do these things, the projections are staggering. Within the next five years, nearly a half-million new Alzheimer's cases will be diagnosed annually, as 78 million baby boomers reach age 65. Given those numbers, most of us will either become an Alzheimer's patient, care for one in our home or know a patient in our extended family. By robbing victims of memory, Alzheimer's strips away individuality, dignity and independence.

Alzheimer's is expensive. It requires $19,000 a year in out-of-pocket costs for each caregiver family. Last year Medicare spent $91 billion for Alzheimer's. That figure will nearly double in just four years -- and keep soaring as 14 million cases are diagnosed in boomers' lifetimes.

Within the pharmaceutical industry, there are 28 Alzheimer's compounds in development. But progress on all fronts is unconscionably slow considering the looming shadow of this epidemic. And, given the complexity of the disease, no single research organization has the resources to research all its facets as quickly as we must...

For every month we hesitate, we will find ourselves spending down the nation's health-care budget to care for the demise of millions of people. We should be preparing to cure them. We could make my generation the last to dread Alzheimer's. It is time to accelerate the pace of our efforts and take the battle to a level on par with our hope.

Essen doesn't speak as an entirely disinterested observer, of course. He is the chairman, president, and CEO of Wyeth Corp. His company stands to reap profits from a war on Alzheimer's.

But the logic of his arguments for a concerted national effort, with perhaps, the federal government acting as the catalyst, is irrefutable. If we expect to defeat Alzheimer's, we need as a country to increase our efforts to match that aspiration.

The savings of lives, monies, and memories will make the effort worthwhile. To avoid the unprecedented ravages this disease will soon unleash on Baby Boomers, their spouses, and their families, the time is now to make this commitment!

Our progress against cancer and AIDS, as well as the cures of countless other once-deadly diseases indicates that we can defeat Alzheimer's. And we must!

[PS: This is only my opinion. I don't claim that this is a Christian position. It's my position. I felt the need to say that in light of some of my recent pontifi...er, blogging.]

[Thanks to Andy Jackson at SmartChristian.com for linking to this post. I always feel like a smarter Christian every time Andy mentions something from this blog.]