Fact check: Giuliani's cancer stats

Source: ap



Fact check: Giuliani's cancer stats

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival.


In a radio ad running this week in New Hampshire, Giuliani says: "My chance of surviving prostate cancer, and thank God I was cured of it, in the United States: 82 percent. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44 percent under socialized medicine."

THE SPIN:

Giuliani uses those statistics to deride Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan, which he says amounts to socialized medicine that would reduce the quality and drive up the cost of health care. He is promoting tax breaks to help families buy private health insurance.

Challenged Friday about his numbers, Giuliani defended them as "absolutely accurate" at the time of his prostate cancer treatment in 2000. "Those statistics have changed slightly today," he said Friday.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_el_pr/giuliani_cancer_fact_check;_ylt=Ao_yKp5oTljoPwX5JPTfNiOtOrgF

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so, if he would have went to england, he would have almost dies?

So there is disagreement — and studies conflict — over whether the chances of survival for men with low-risk tumors really improve with aggressive treatment, or if they can be closely monitored and treated only if their tumors grow, thereby avoiding side effects such as impotence and incontinence.

The former New York mayor got his numbers from an article in the City Journal, a quarterly magazine published by the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank.

Mortality rates in the two countries are closer — 15 of every 100,000 people die of prostate cancer in the U.K., compared with 12 of 100,000 in the U.S., the American Cancer Society said.

Hey Rudy! You should thank the Doctors! After all THEY did the real work.

Giuliani, when he was diagnosed and treated, was covered by Government paid for health insurance...