This is good news. Unless of course you are currently dying of cancer.
Treatment for the most common solid tumours remains woefully inadequate, unless you compare it to even more woeful older therapies. Lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, these all remain horrible diseases, that result in an untimely and unpleasant death. We are replacing mortality with expensive morbidity that approaches death asymptotically. This produces a better looking survival curve, but is it actually better?
Good news on the colon cancer, though. Exact Sciences released an effective screen for it recently, catching pre-cancer as well. It is a slow growth cancer that can be treated very well at early stages. My guess is that they will drop colon cancer way down the cancer mortality list.
I did by buying EXAS when the new CEO came in at about $2. The previous management didn't have what it took to get it off the ground. The availability to buy the test came out this quarter so sales numbers are not in yet (but it is fully reimbursed at ~$500, where management said they would make a killing at $300). So after doing your due diligence, it may be worth waiting for the sales numbers to come out and buy on any weakness.
The other way to take advantage is to get yourself screened :)
What you see as a disparity, researchers and pharmaceuticals see as a honeypot. A cure for any form is a win for someone, but make no mistake that solid tumors are on a few institutions' big targets.
There's a few different approaches going on right now including (1) studying mechanisms of how tumors become drug resistant, (2) stimulating the immune system to better target the tumors, and (3) figuring out how to make those solid tumors spongy again.
