DeVita, who was 36 at the time, was skeptical.
He has since changed his mind.
Successes and challenges
Decisive victories abound.
Since 1971, the cancer death rate is down more than 25 percent.
Between 1975 and 2016, the five-year survival rate increased 36 percent.
The arsenal of anticancer therapies has expanded more than tenfold.
But going to the moon was easier.
It takes a long time to understand complicated diseases.
Heres a look at where we stand.
And thats if you were lucky.
People considered elderly often got no treatment at all.
Cancer was shrouded in terror and myth.
People would spray desks at work with Lysol because they thought that cancer was contagious.
Families made a loved one with cancer use paper plates and plastic utensils.
Plenty has changed, but plenty more needs to.
Now 73, shes a beneficiary of the war on cancers victories and has also weathered its shortcomings.
A U.S. Army nurse who served in Vietnam, she was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma in 1972.
If untreated, her life expectancy was just three to five years.
The experience inspired her to become an advocate for cancer survivors.
But we thought in simplistic terms.
Over 50 years, weve discovered cancer is not one but many, many hundreds of diseases.
Well be looking for treatments for years.
