Cancer is NOT the end - why do we fear cancer more than much more fatal diseases such as rabies?

This is a new version of an article I wrote as a 14 year old.

I am not yet a healthcare professional, but I am in medical school.

Cancer has got to be the one disease that scares people more than anything. But, overall, cancer's mortality rate (by which I mean the percentage of people who die after being diagnosed) is possibly less than 50%, although it depends highly on the type and stage of cancer.

I'm going to base some of the analysis on articles, such as this one. The easiest statistics to access are from the United States, although the outcomes may vary across the world.

Let's begin with the first statistic listed.

• In 2025, an estimated 2,041,910 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States and 618,120 people will die from the disease.

There is one issue, and that is that I'm not sure if the number of people who die is about all cancer deaths within a year, or if it's about how many people out of the ones diagnosed in a certain year will die. However, if we assume that technically per 2,041,910 patients 618,120 people will die, the cancer mortality rate would be  around 30%. That means that more than 50% of people diagnosed with cancer will not die within a year.

• The most common cancers (listed in descending order according to estimated new cases in 2025) are breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung and bronchus cancer, colon and rectum cancer, melanoma of the skin, bladder cancer, kidney and renal pelvis cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, uterine corpus cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukemia, thyroid cancer, and liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer.

Now, I tried looking into each of those types individually and their 5-year survival rate.

The 5-year survival rate (meaning compared to people with the disease, x% of people diagnosed with the disease are likely to still be alive after 5 years from diagnosis) for breast cancer is estimated to be around 92%. Yes, the most common cancer is highly treatable due to increasing preventive measures such as routine mammography and awareness about checking one's breasts for lumps.

 For prostate cancer to rate is around 98% thanks to improving treatments and prostate exams.

However not all of the common cancers are that easy to survive. Non small-cell lung cancer has a 5 year survival rate of 32% and the small cell form has only 9%. But, it's important to note around 90% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking - so if you are not a smoker, the chances of developing it are quite slim. And if non-small cell lung cancer is found early enough, the prognosis is much better with a 67% 5 year survival rate.

For colon cancer the rate is at 63%, and for rectal cancer - 67%.

For melanoma - 95% - easy to detect due to the changes being visible on the skin.

Bladder cancer - 79%.

Kidney cancer - 79%.

For Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, the most common types get 65% (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) and 89% (follicular lymphoma), and most people survive it even if it's metastatic (spread to the distant parts of the body) - 58% and 86% 5 year survival rate consecutively.

For uterine/endometrial cancer the rate is 84%.

For pancreatic cancer - the odds are just 13%. Even if diagnosed early the chances of survival are not high, at only 44%.

For all types of leukemia the rate is 67%.

There are multiple types of thyroid cancer. For papillary thyroid cancer the odds of living for the next 5 years is actually almost at 100%, with 71% 5 year survival rate even if it has metastasised. For follicular thyroid cancer the overall rate is 98%, with 62% even when it has metastasised. For modullary thyroid cancer we get 93%, and when it has metastasised - 50%. However, anaplastic thyroid cancer has a 5 year survival rate of just 10%, and just 45% when caught early.

For liver cancer, the rate is just 22% with just 37% even when caught early.

So let's separate the most common types of cancer into two groups: over 50% 5 year survival rate and under 50% 5 year survival rate.

Over: breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, NHL, uterine cancer, leukemia, most types of thyroid cancer. Thus, 10 out of 13 named by cancer.gov.

Under: lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, anaplastic thyroid cancer, liver cancer. That gives us 4 out of 13, or even 3,25 out of 13 given that only one type of thyroid cancer is less than 50%.

• Prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers account for an estimated 48% of all cancers diagnosed in men in 2025. For women, the three most common cancers are breast, lung, and colorectal, and they will account for an estimated 51% of all new cancer diagnoses in women in 2025.

Out of those, most are relatively easy to survive except for lung cancer.

• The rate of new cases of cancer (cancer incidence) is  445.8 per 100,000 men and women per year (based on 2018–2022 cases).

That is a 0,4% chance of a cancer diagnosis in a year - and the chance is even slimmer for most of my readers who are young people.

• The cancer death rate (cancer mortality) is 145.4 per 100,000 men and women per year (based on 2019–2023 deaths).

That is a 0,1% chance that within a year you will die of cancer - once again slimmer for young people.

• The cancer mortality rate is higher among men than women (171.5 per 100,000 men and 126.3 per 100,000 women). When comparing groups based on race/ethnicity and sex, cancer mortality is highest in non-Hispanic Black men (203.6 per 100,000) and lowest in non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander women (83.1 per 100,000).

0,2% for men, 0,1% for women, 0,2% for non-Hispanic Black men and 0.1% for non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander women.

• As of January 2022, there were an estimated 18.1 million cancer survivors in the United States. The number of cancer survivors is projected to increase to 26 million by 2040.
• Approximately 38.9% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetimes (based on 2018–2021 data, not including 2020, due to COVID).
• In 2025, an estimated 14,690 children and adolescents ages 0 to 19 will be diagnosed with cancer and 1,650 will die of the disease.

That is 11% of those children.

• Estimated national expenditures for cancer care in the United States in 2020 were $208.9 billion. In future years, costs are likely to increase as the population ages and more people have cancer. Costs are also likely to increase as new, and often more expensive, treatments are adopted as standards of care.

So as you can see most outlooks for cancer patients are actually quite optimistic, particularly with new research regarding oncological treatments.

My theory is that we mostly fear cancer due to how common it is. Thus, the 618 120 people dying of cancer in the US is more than 5 deaths of an almost 100% disease that is rabies. That is more than 1327 yearly deaths in the whole world!

I actually have another take about infectious diseases and how the most lethal ones are the least common in most cases, but that is a topic for a whole other article.

Another reason I think cancer is so feared is the way the treatments work - particularly chemo. Sometimes the chemo which is technically poison can kill the patient before the cancer does. It not only causes hair loss, but also vomiting, diarrhoea, malnutrition, immune suppression, weakness, blood cell imbalances, constipation, mouth sores and ulcers, neuropathy, discolouration or weakening of the skin, incontinence, brain fog, mental issues, sexual dysfunction and infetility. That is often more painful - or lethal than the cancer itself. Thankfully, with new research more treatments become available - including surgery and immunotherapy which seem to be the most promising.

And why do we fear cancer more than we fear Alzheimer's? Alzheimer's manifest almost always in older individuals, when they are already quite acquainted with the idea of dying. And besides, when your brain is congested by dementia, you may possibly not be aware that you're dying, which may make it more bearable.

I am planning to expand this article with more statistics and scientific studies, as well as bibliography. Please comment any questions you may have!