The Top Cancer Immunotherapies Expected to Reach $1 Billion in Sales in 2017

There is perhaps no scarier word in the English language than "cancer." More than 15.5 million Americans who were alive as of Jan. 1, 2016, have had cancer at some point in their lives, according to the American Cancer Society, and it's expected to lead to 600,920 deaths in 2017. Cancer is currently the second most common cause of death in the U.S., behind only heart disease, but if a rising trend in cancer diagnoses continues, it'll soon become the leading cause of death in the United States.

However, we've also witnessed some incredible pharmaceutical innovations over the past four decades that have led to notably positive impacts on five-year cancer survival rates. For example, prostate cancer in men and breast cancer for women had five-year survival rates of 68% and 75%, respectively, between 1975 and 1977. By 2006-2012, these five-year survival rates were up to 99% and 91%, respectively. Strong improvements have also been seen in kidney and renal cancers, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and colorectal cancers, to name a few.

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Source: Fool.com