Welcome to the week.
Sometimes stats can sound really scary like: cancer deaths worldwide have roughly doubled since 1980.
But as always, context is key: it’s mostly because there are billions more people alive, living longer.
Adjust for that, and cancer death rates have actually fallen by more than 20% globally, and by about a third in the US since 1990.
So the big picture is good news! But there is a catch: that progress isn’t reaching everyone equally — luckily for us, that’s a fixable problem.
Let’s go.
— Willow
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🏥 Universal health insurance coverage, 0% uninsured (learn more)
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Cancer deaths doubled, but death rates fell
This week, news dropped that scientists have made progress on one of the genes (MYC, found in 70% of cancers) behind why some cancers are especially hard to treat (The New York Times), and separate reporting found that plenty of patients with already treatable cancers aren’t getting the basic testing that would tell doctors which drug to use (The New York Times).
So, who actually gets to benefit from how much better cancer treatment has gotten?
Cancer treatment, on the whole, really has gotten better.
But that progress isn't landing evenly. Per the NYT’s access reporting: treatment guidelines call for genetic testing in metastatic colon cancer, yet only 51% of patients were tested; similar gaps show up in non-small-cell lung cancer (34% untested), metastatic breast (60%), and metastatic prostate (50%) cancers.
These are the tests that would tell doctors which of today’s more effective, more targeted drugs could actually help.
And the patients most likely to miss out on these treatments are people who are poor, Black, Hispanic, uninsured or on Medicaid.
So What:
For cancers driven by genes we still can’t target, like MYC (found in 70% of cancers), it’s a research problem.
For colorectal, breast, lung, and prostate cancer, the treatments mostly already exist, but there’s a gap in delivery from whether a biopsy gets ordered, sent to a lab, and matched to a drug, to whether a patient’s insurance covers it once it is.
Both need funding and infrastructure behind them.
On the research side, states are starting to step in where federal funding has pulled back — California just put a $7.5 billion state research fund on the 2028 ballot for that reason (LA Times).
On the delivery side, there’s no single bill that fixes testing and coverage gaps. It’s a slower grind of insurance policy, provider training, and cost.
Be Heard: Tell Congress health care is a human right and to support the Medicare for All Act (go).
Learn: Understand why cancer drugs cost so much, and what policy could actually fix it, with Drug Costs: Causes & Solutions from the National Library of Medicine (go).
Donate: Support the Patient Advocate Foundation, which helps patients get or give help covering medical costs directly (go).
Donate: Back the Cancer Research Institute, which is funding the next wave of cancer immunotherapy breakthroughs (go).
👉 NEW: Find every action recommended in It’s Called Science right here.
✅ Fact Check
Black Americans make up nearly 14% of the US population. What share of cancer clinical trial participants are Black?
Last week, we asked: Data centers drove roughly what share of all growth in US electricity demand in 2025?
You answered:
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 10% (6%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 20% (16%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 30% (16%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 50% (61%)
The correct answer: 50%. Per the IEA, data centers accounted for around half of all US electricity demand growth in 2025, and the agency expects that to hold through 2030. Most of you nailed it.
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🗳 Maine prisoners are organizing to protect their right to vote.
Maine is one of only two states that never stripped incarcerated people of voting rights, and prisoners there are now organizing to defend it (Bolts Mag).
🌊 California is close to its 30% land conservation goal, but behind on protecting its coastal waters.
The state is on track to meet its 30×30 land conservation target, but ocean and coastal protections are lagging behind (LA Times).
🐷 Someone mapped nearly 11,000 factory farms in Iowa.
A new data investigation maps every industrial animal operation in the state, revealing patterns in water contamination risk and which communities bear the brunt (Sentient Media).
That’s it for this week.
Thank you — as always — for giving a shit.
— Willow
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