A few semi-random stats culled from my notes.
Approximate age of the ‘cancer stem cell’ hypothesis: 150 years
Amount of money spent in the United States for cancer treatment in 2004: $72 billion
Number of candidate cancer biomarkers reported in the literature: at least 1261
Number of biomarkers approved each year by the US FDA since 1998: less than 1 per year
Percent increase in the risk of one kind of breast cancer in postmenopausal women who drink 3 or more glasses of alcohol each day: 51%
(that’s estrogen- and progesterone-receptor positive breast cancer, for those of you keeping score)
Number of women in the alcohol-and-breast-cancer study: 184,418
Percent decrease in the risk of colorectal cancer in mouse pups whose mothers were fed a diet rich in folic acid during pregnancy and lactation: 300%