Letter: Search for answers to the rising rate of cancer
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.SSir: Your article "Every other Briton will be hit by cancer" was based on predictions of cancer incidence done by us. In the report we made it clear that the projections were based entirely on present trends, and took no account of future events which might change the incidence of cancer, and we also pointed out that predicting 20 years into the future is very uncertain.
We were therefore dismayed to read that these projections are being used to infer that "the war against the disease is being lost". We do not think the military analogies appropriate, but if we use them, then what we have done is to point out where the enemy would be if it continued to march at the present speed and direction. This is not an accurate prediction, but it does give a baseline from which to measure the effects of interventions, and we do provide a general idea of the size of future tasks.
Our projections are definitely not any comment on the result of past battles. The First World War analogy suggests that the projections somehow indicate that there have been huge and unnecessary sacrifices in the past for no gain. This is simply not true. Suffering would have been worse without the battle, and although the expense has been great there have been considerable gains.
We take exception to the implication that we are spreading gloom and doom, and think the public is mature enough to cope with predictions if they are discussed in a non-sensational way.
Dr T W DAVIES
Director, East Anglian Cancer Intelligence Unit
Institute of Public Health
Cambridge
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments