Insight

Karen Knudsen: Nearly 6 Million Lives Saved from cancer between 1975 and 2020

Karen Knudsen/LinkedIn

Jan 10, 2025, 08:48

Karen Knudsen: Nearly 6 Million Lives Saved from cancer between 1975 and 2020

Karen Knudsen, Executive Strategic Advisor and Immediate Past CEO of ACS, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent paper by Katrina Goddard et al. published in JAMA Oncology:

“Today’s number: 6 million. Well… technically, it’s 5.94 million… but that’s how many lives were saved from some of the most common cancers (breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, prostate) from 1975 and 2020.

We can thank this important achievement to groundbreaking advances in cancer science, as beautifully laid out with clarity and impact in a collaborative study from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and leading cancer centers.

Important subnote – advances in treatment proved critical, but 8 of 10 deaths averted in this calculation were attributed to advances in cancer prevention and screening!

All told, it’s clear that cancer research saves lives – not just by improving outcomes, but by turning what once seemed impossible into reality. Here’s to continuing the momentum!”

“Estimation of Cancer Deaths Averted From Prevention, Screening, and Treatment Efforts, 1975-2020”

Authors: Katrina Goddard, Eric Feuer, Jeanne Mandelblatt, Asad Umar, Philip Castle et al.

Karen Knudsen: Nearly 6 Million Lives Saved from cancer between 1975 and 2020

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Karen E. Knudsen is the Executive Strategic Advisor and Immediate Past CEO of the American Cancer Society (ACS). Prior to joining ACS, Dr. Knudsen served as executive vice president of Oncology Services and enterprise director for Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health.

She also served as president for the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) and on the board of directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She serves on the board of advisors for the National Cancer Institute, on 12 external advisory boards for NCI-designated cancer centers and on Exai Bio.

She is an active member of several committees with the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in addition to serving on other academic and for-profit advisory boards.