Between 1970 and 1994, cancer mortality had, if anything, increased slightly, about 6 percent, from 189 deaths per 100,000 to 201 deaths. Admittedly, the death rate had plateaued somewhat in the last ten years, but even so, this could hardly be construed as a victory. Cancer, Bailar concluded, was still reigning “undefeated.” Charted as a graph, the nation’s progress on cancer was a flat line; the War on Cancer had, thus far, yielded a stalemate.
