How to Reduce Deaths From Cancer

Re “Why Everyone Seems to Have Cancer,” by George Johnson (Sunday Review, Jan. 5):

Although the “war on cancer” nowadays more resembles a siege, presuming inevitable defeat seems a bit premature. The problem — and wonder — of medicine is fundamentally Rumsfeldian: the “unknown unknowns” that limit our ability to predict both the future of disease as well as our capacity to combat it.

Centuries ago the vast army of infectious agents would have appeared similarly insurmountable — until, of course, the discovery of vaccines, antibiotics and improved public hygiene. Cancer may appear to be a more formidable opponent at present, but if history is our guide, we might be wiser to wager on human ingenuity and scientific progress to ultimately triumph over this enemy as well.

JASON P. LOTT
New Haven, Jan. 5, 2014

The writer, a doctor, is a clinical scholar in the department of dermatology, Yale University School of Medicine.

To the Editor:

Your article spotlights the inevitability of certain cancers as we age, but glosses over cancers that affect thousands of children and young people every year. As the President’s Cancer Panel noted in a 2008-2009 report, “the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated.”

Yet only a fraction of chemicals on the market have been adequately tested for safety, thanks to a dysfunctional toxics law that hasn’t been substantially updated since it was signed by President Gerald R. Ford in 1976. The good news is that lawmakers in both parties seem increasingly prepared to break the deadlock.

A bill introduced last year by Frank Lautenberg, the late Democratic senator from New Jersey, and Senator David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana, is currently winding through the Senate, and a companion measure is expected soon on the House side. The legislation still needs work, and there are many hurdles yet to clear. But we are closer than ever to the legal safeguards that could prevent countless cancer tragedies.