I, along with the rest of the myeloma community are very optimistic about the future of care for multliple myeloma patients. Much of this optimism is because we continue to hear the great news from ASH(American Society of Hematology) and ASCO(American Society of Clinical Oncology) meetings, as well as the excellent results that are posted on this site. So it came as a great surprise to me when the new statistics from the National Cancer Institute were updated on April 30, 2012 showed a 2% reduction in the 4 year survival. The 4 year survival got worse not better and went from 50.4% to 49.2%, and I can not tell you how disappointed I was to see this. This data is available at the following web link: http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2009_pops09/browse_csr.php?section=18&page=sect_18_table.09.html The National Cancer Institute provides this valuable information in the form of their Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Cancer Statistics Review.
To me there is such a large gap between what we hear and what we see. The majority of specialists who have provided their data on this site or are with nationally recognized programs reflect results that are much better than those listed on SEER. As we have discussed on this site before, their are many possible causes for this anomaly, but all of them combined represent a possible 10 or 20% difference, but not 100 to 500% difference. I again make the case that it can only be the quality of care, and as a result I believe as do most myeloma specialists, that all multiple myeloma patients should have a multiple myeloma specialist on their team to narrow the gap between what they hear and what they experience.
God Bless all who have to be on this multiple myeloma journey/ [email protected]
To me there is such a large gap between what we hear and what we see. The majority of specialists who have provided their data on this site or are with nationally recognized programs reflect results that are much better than those listed on SEER. As we have discussed on this site before, their are many possible causes for this anomaly, but all of them combined represent a possible 10 or 20% difference, but not 100 to 500% difference. I again make the case that it can only be the quality of care, and as a result I believe as do most myeloma specialists, that all multiple myeloma patients should have a multiple myeloma specialist on their team to narrow the gap between what they hear and what they experience.
God Bless all who have to be on this multiple myeloma journey/ [email protected]
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