Both good and bad news mark the 1982 edition of “Cancer Facts and Figures” issued by the American Cancer Society. On the positive side: Fourteen cancers which a few decades ago had poor prognoses are being cured today in many cases. thanks largely to drug advances; ACS projections indicate 278.000 Americans who get cancer in 1982 will survive five years or more; and about two million have passed the fiveyear survival mark, a yardstick generally associated with cure. The bad news relates mostly to lung cancer, projected to kill 111.000 of the estimated 430,000 Americans who will die of cancers this year – 9,000 more than in 1981. Twothirds of the extra deaths will be attributed to lung cancer the society said. The prediction that more than 25 percent of the 1982 cancer deaths will be from lung cancer is quite startling since the ratio was only 8.7 percent in 1950. The death rate for all cancers increased from 157 to 169.9 per 100.000 population from 1950 to 1978, the last year for which statistics are available. Excluding lung cancer. the death rate dropped from 144 to 128.7. Wire service accounts quoted Lawrence Garfinkel, ACS vice president for cancer prevention, as citing the “irony of this situation” and saying “the best way to avoid getting it (lung cancer) is to give up cigarettes.” Projections of”the society indicate 129,000 new cases of lung cancer this year. 123,000 of colonrectum cancer, 112,000 of breast cancer, and about 73,000 of prostate cancer. The society had hopeful news on the treatment front, including: (1) bone cancer therapy that may spare a patient amputation of an arm or leg; and (2) research with interferon, a natural body substance working at least in part through the immune system and showing promising anti-cancer activity. But the battle against cancer is far from won. The work of the American Cancer Society is to be commended. The extent of the progress, of course, depends on support by the public. Individual responsibility doesn’t end there. Each person must be his own guardian in prevention and in early detection, so important in combatting the disease.