Exploring Cancer Around the World

A number of people extremely close to me are battling cancer. One very young lady, a beautiful soul, will be leaving us any day now.

I am someone who is a self-titled health nut (although what's nutty about learning and taking care of yourself?). I read a lot, listen to a lot of podcasts, watch YouTube videos and am in a number of on-line groups relating to various topics.

Over the years I have seen comments, heard comments in those venues regarding our (USA) treatment of diseases: We treat symptoms, don't get to the root causes. We have high rates of diseases compared to other countries around the world. And, the one I'm focusing on today, other countries deal with cancer much better and more humanely than we do.

How do we stack up? Is there a better way to treat cancer than to use chemo, radiation, and the newest method immunotherapy. Probably as I delve into things I'll find that the newest isn't the newest. I haven't started my research journey yet.

First: How do we rank in the world? Per the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research, the US is the 5th highest (standardized) when it comes to the rates of cancer. Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Hungary have higher rates, in that order. https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/cancer-trends/data-cancer-frequency-country

Pretty sad for a country that brags about its health care system. We are, according to my reading, known as the place to come for treatment when all hope is gone. We're not so great on prevention.

What's our survival rate? From Wikipedia: "In the United States there has been an increase in the 5-year relative survival rate between people diagnosed with cancer in 1975-1977 (48.9%) and people diagnosed with cancer in 2007-2013 (69.2%); these figures coincide with a 20% decrease in cancer mortality from 1950 to 2014." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_survival_rates

I'm not sure how they define "survival rate" only because I know of a number of people who are "surviving" but their lives are living hells. Pain, treatment, more treatments, pain, inability to breath after treatments, sitting in chairs and unable to leave their homes... Living decently for 3, 5, 7 years then finding out a cancer has been growing in another part of their body undetected and wham, they're back on the treatment roller coaster.

To be fair, I also know quite a few people who have survived cancers and are doing well. Mostly breast cancers caught early. I have a number of friends who weren't so lucky.

Per World Population Review the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have the highest survival rates. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/cancer-survival-rates-by-country/

Breast and prostate cancers have the highest survival rates while those with stomach and lung cancer have fairly dismal chances (under 30% for stomach, under 20% for lung).

[When I dug a little deeper, while their article is dated 2019 the data is only through 2014, a much talked about report by CONCORD, a global program for world-wide surveillance of cancer survival, led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. You can find more info on the study here: https://csg.lshtm.ac.uk/research/themes/concord-programme/  ]

On a side note, I had a friend who beat lung cancer after a strong battle. The doofus went back to smoking and it reoccured. He wasn't so lucky the second time around. And...went to lunch with a friend and his wife, both heavy smokers. Great lunch, talking about working together, planning things for the future and two weeks later he was in the hospital with lung cancer, died within days.

If you're looking for overall survival rates, data on all causes of death I came across this excellent compilation dated April, 2019 (data is from 2015): https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/mortality-rates-u-s-compare-countries/#item-respiratory-diseases-mortality-rate-2015

OK --- finally I'm back to the subject I started with --- treatment types in other countries not available in the US or considered more humane, less painful or in some cases, lethal.

Mexico: This is a listing from the Gerson Hospital that offers these alternative and complementary types of treatment just outside Tijuana, Mexico: https://chipsahospital.org/11-powerful-cancer-treatments-that-are-use-in-other-countries-but-unavailable-in-the-usa/

I have read of people going there for treatment who have had great success. I would guess that money is an issue as I seriously doubt our insurance companies will touch covering treatments 1. outside the country and 2. not approved in the US :-). I love that they integrate diet and nutrition as the foundation. If I found out I had cancer that might be my first go-to after hearing what the US docs had to say.

Max Gerson was a German neurosurgeon. You'll read more if you click the link about the treatments above.


The Mayo Clinic popped up in my research with a list of alternative cancer treatments (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/in-depth/cancer-treatment/art-20047246). I was kinda mildy shocked until I read what they offered. "Won't cure but may make treatment easier" (paraphrased). Ummm... sure. Deep breathing, massage, etc. Great list and it may help some, especially at the beginning, but when you're feeling like crap, itching, crawling out of your skin due to chemo or radiation the last thing you want is a massage. Even deep breathing can be painful.

Finland: Again, this is an advertisement from a hospital. They tout the CONCORD study showing that Finland has some of the best treatment survival rates. https://www.docrates.com/en/treatments/patient-satisfaction/finland-leading-country-in-cancer-care/

I skimmed their treatment options and nothing popped out as being radically different, but all I did was a quick skim. However, there is a reason Finland has the highest survival rate --- it have nothing to do with their treatments. It could be that they eat better, eat closer to the way we were meant to eat, and thus they fight off cancer better than the average person in countries who eat crappy diets (like we do in the USA).

Here is a great article from a UK author on treatment abroad: https://www.medic8.com/medical-tourism/cancer-treatment-abroad.html They go into treatments in Germany, France and Spain, and have tips for those wanting to travel abroad for cancer care. It is interesting that there's a statement basically saying you might get better care outside of the UK. Kinda sad. As you read you'll see many slams on healthcare in the UK. Striking them off my list (not that they were ever on it, even though I lived there and loved it many, many years ago).

Great article on alternative treatments. I have read a LOT about the Ketogenic diet (first on the list). That would be my first go-to as it also has a huge positive impact on any inflammatory issue. In fact, I am now on a Keto-flex type of diet combined with intermittent fasting as a prevention protocol. Unapproved but Effective Cancer Cures

An opposing, and sobering view on alternative treatments that specifically mentions treatment in Mexico: https://www.statnews.com/2017/08/29/cancer-treatment-alternative-medicine/

I am one who looks to alternative, "natural" treatments, especially diet and herbs --- but I certainly don't shun doctors and standard care. I just do my research. I rather like how he ended the article...doctors can alienate patients by demeaning alternative treatment, but there's no reason someone can't do both (again, I paraphrase).

Another article you may want to read: Cancer care in the U.S. versus Europe: Is more necessarily better?

NOTE: I put the links throughout the blog rather than posting at the end 'cause I figure you don't want to keep skipping to the end. Hope you found something of interest although I barely touched on the subject matter. I'm sure I'll be back with more at some point!