Ohio has the 11th highest cancer mortality rate for both men and women, but national survival rates are at an all-time high, according to a new report by the American Cancer Society.
The current five-year cancer survival rate of 70% represents a sharp increase from 49% in the mid-1970s, and is driven by reduced smoking rates, earlier cancer screenings and improved cancer treatments, the report found.
Smoking cessation is particularly important as lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths, Cleveland Clinic oncologist Dr. Dale Shepard said.
“Certainly, we see a large emphasis on trying to have people quit smoking," Shepard said. "Historically, smoking rates are a little higher here in Northeast Ohio than in many other parts of the country.”
Cleveland has had some of the highest smoking rates in the country, but tobacco use has dropped by 30% over the last decade, according to a recent study.
One way local researchers could further improve treatments is through artificial intelligence, Shepard said.
“To get beyond that 70% five-year survival, we need to have more effective research, and AI can help with that by figuring out better therapies for our patients,” he said.
AI could allow researchers to review patients’ medical records and find the best treatment or clinical trials available based on individual needs, Shepard said.
Chemotherapy was the preferred treatment in the past and may have shrunk tumors 20% of the time, he said. New approaches, including reprogramming a patient’s genes to attack cancer cells, may shrink those cells as much as 80% of the time, Shepard said.
