April 3, 2015 3:59PM # Curing Cancer with Innovation By [Chelsea Follett](https://www.cato.org/people/chelsea-follett) --- SHARE While a “cure for cancer,” is not yet in hand, it is probably not as far away as you think. As an [article](http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-arrow-of-u-s-cancer-progress-1428019374) in yesterday’s *Wall Street Journal* shows, we are making tremendous strides in the fight against cancer. Let us take a moment to look at the data and rejoice in the many lives saved by medical innovation. We focus on gains made against the [top four deadliest](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11129002/Which-cancers-are-the-most-deadly-and-which-get-the-most-funding.html) cancers: lung cancer, bowel cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. Consider how the lung cancer death rate per 100,000 men has [decreased](http://humanprogress.org/story/lung-cancer-death-rates) since the 1980s: ![Media Name: cancerblogimg1.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/cancerblogimg1.png?itok=IMhNF7tT) While the decline is global, the greatest gains can be seen in wealthy, developed countries like the United States. This is in part because, as Human​Progress​.org advisory board member Matt Ridley [notes](http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/the-inevitability-of-cancer.aspx), “In the western world we’ve conquered most of the causes of premature death that used to kill our ancestors,” and with old age comes an increased incidence of cancer, making gains against cancer more notable. Next, consider how the death rate for the second deadliest cancer–colon or bowel cancer–has [fallen](http://humanprogress.org/story/colon-rectum-anus-cancer-death-rates-men) in the developed world. ![Media Name: cancerblogimg2.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/cancerblogimg2.png?itok=1hg_P8jU) There has also been a steep decline in the breast cancer death rate per 100,000 women. The death rate for the third deadliest cancer held fairly steady from the 1950s through the early 1990s, when it began to [plummet](http://humanprogress.org/story/breast-cancer-death-rates-women), and it has continued to fall ever since. ![Media Name: cancerblogimg3.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/cancerblogimg3.png?itok=NnBo9O-4) Finally, consider the similar [drop](http://humanprogress.org/story/prostate-cancer-death-rates-men) in the death rate of prostate cancer, the fourth deadliest cancer. ![Media Name: cancerblogimg4.png](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/cancerblogimg4.png?itok=FYbFw4Lj) Innovation and the free market are helping to propel the medical advancements leading to falling cancer death rates. Some people believe that the modern lifestyle (e.g., drinking soda) causes cancer, but those claims [are uninformed](http://www.newsweek.com/food-and-cancer-missing-link-298221)–most cancer is the result of bad luck. Instead of killing us, innovation is actually saving lives. We have [seen](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-24/faster-fda-spurs-cancer-breakthroughs-as-drug-approvals-surge?utm_content=buffer6d9b7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer) that cancer breakthroughs abound when regulation does not slow them down. To hurry along a cure for cancer, we need to let free innovation take its course. ##### Related Tags [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).