Early detection of Oral Cancer...it needs more public awareness.

Maybe the issue below belongs elsewhere in this forum. It needs a congressional hearing if you ask me.

Advances in cancer-fighting medicine and technology have resulted in increasing numbers of cancer survivors. At the same time, an aging and significantly large population of baby boomers will mean an increase in cancer diagnoses as this pivotal group passes 65, the age at which cancer rates spike. Add to the mix a slowing growth in the supply of oncologists, and according to the authors of the study, the result is a drastic shortage of oncologists by 2020, just as cancer rates in the country are expected to soar.

Even current figures are worrisome. There are about 10,400 oncologists in the United States today with roughly 500 new ones entering the workforce each year. Yet, an estimated 1.4 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in 2007. Looking ahead, the study predicts a 48 percent jump in cancer incidence and an 81 percent increase in Americans living with or surviving cancer in the years leading up to 2020. But the crunch might be felt even earlier as oncologist caseloads rise. "It will likely get tougher to get an appointment with an oncologist over the next few years," predicts one of the study's authors, Edward Salsberg, director of the Center for Workforce Studies at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which conducted the study.

If a boomer does manage to get penciled in, they still may not have much cause for celebration. "The medical oncologist of the future might be more of a team leader," says Michael Goldstein, chair of the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Workforce in Oncology Task Force and an oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "There will be less face-to-face time with a single patient." Once a patient is treated, she will be more likely to be seen by a primary-care physician and less likely to receive follow-up care from an oncologist, who would need to focus on urgent or new cases, not continued care. It's a potential trend that has only 15 percent of surveyed oncologists convinced it might alleviate the shortage. Study author Salsberg suggests this might be due to the fact that "many oncologists have already heard that there will be a shortage in primary-care doctors as well, or it's because cancer care has gotten so complicated that you really do need to be seen by a specialist."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17599898/site/newsweek/?from=rss