President and Cancer

Cancers affect everyone. One in two men and one in three women develop cancers in their life time. This is sobering statistics.

Today, February 18, 2019, is President’s Day. As a president of any nation, healthy state of its citizens is his top priority. Cancers reach epidemic level and are the number one healthy issue in the world nowadays.

In US, President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer on December 23, 1971, which established National Cancer Act of 1971 to strengthen the National Cancer Institute for more effectively carry out effort against cancer.

The National Cancer Act included establishment of President’s Cancer Panel, advisors to the president on the national cancer program. The panel gives regular reports on the status of our national cancer program.

In the 2018 report, the most recent one, the Panel presented an extensive evaluation on national cancer program and focused on promoting value, affordability, and innovation in cancer drug treatment.

The rise in drug prices is straining patients and society. Drugs account for about 20 percent of the total costs of cancer care in the US, but cancer drug costs are accelerating faster than costs for other components of care.

US patients and their insurers are paying average about $200,000 for cancer drugs as of 2018. Furthermore, the trend of price escalation is toward ever higher.

The burden of high drug costs or financial toxicity is only one of many cancer patients face. Like medical toxicities caused by cancer treatment, financial toxicity can impose a significant burden on patients, including a diminished quality of life, interference with high-quality care delivery, and even a reduction in survival rates.

Drugs that cure cancer should be priced higher than drugs that provide margin benefits. The goal is to ensure that cancer patients have access to cancer drugs without experiencing financial toxicity.

Among 44 US presidents, there are two presidents suffering from cancers, President Ulysses Grant and President Jimmy Carter.

President Grant was a life-long chain cigar smoker. He not only smoked cigar, but also chewed them. For more information on President who were smoker, please click the article below:

President Who Smoked Cigarettes

His favorite fruit was peaches. When he first noticed a problem with his throat, he felt something stung him from peach. Unfortunately, he ignored the warning and missed the early diagnosis of his throat cancer.

By the end of his life, President Grant was broke due to his poor investment in the bank. For a long time, he declined offers to tell his story in print. Then he was offered $50,000 and 75% of sales by an admirer of his, author Mark Twain. It was an offer President Grant couldn’t offer to refuse. But time was running short.

President Grant had a mission, that is to complete his memoir, which was going to bail out his family from poverty. President Grant spent his time writing day and night. Sometimes he was choked because of his tongue and throat cancer.

One of the important medicines is his “cocaine water”, which was used to wash and bath his throat and tone, to give him some relief from the pain. President was in so much pain to talk to his family and friends that he wrote note “I have such difficulty in speaking that I am no company”

The memoir writing came out easier than he expected. The words seemed to flow. He wrote more than 10,000 words in a day and the words hardly needed any revising. On July 20, 1885, President Grant completed his manuscript. Among the last words in his memoir were the word: “Let us have peace” which was engraved on his tomb.

The cancer was developed into late stage. His neck was swollen and was unable to eat. He was slowly starving to death. President Grant died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885, three days after he completed his memoir. As of February 18, 2019, Grant was the only president who died of cancer.

President Grant was the hero of his age in the US. By the time he died he was one of the most famous men in the world. He became the commanding general of the US Army. He was twice elected President of the United States. In addition to the above, he has been considered to be one of the great writers in American history.

The story of President Carter’s fight against cancer was documented in the report below:

2017 Kcancer Hero – Jimmy Carter

Innovations in cancer therapy, particularly the development of targeted drugs and immunotherapies, hold remarkable potential to transform treatment of cancer, the deadly disease. Increasingly, a new generation of cancer drugs is producing durable remissions and, potentially, cures. Compared to President Grant, President Carter is fortunately to have advanced tools to fight his cancer. We sincerely wish President ultimately win the war against his cancer.

Happy President’s Day!