Despite advances in science and hopeful trends, cancer remains one of the deadliest diseases ever known. The nation’s most reliable health sources estimate that cancers of every kind, in all sites of the body, will claim an estimated 569,490 lives in America by the end of 2010. Some 1,529,560 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year. Determining the “deadliest cancer” depends on how one views the available information.

Sweeping epidemiological statistics can be misleading when the numbers rise and fall relative to age, gender, ethnicity, family history, and pre-existing conditions. All of these factors and more, plus a great many unknowns, figure into each individual’s vulnerability or survivability. What is the most deadly cancer and why is there no cure?