Strategy for war on cancer

Ever since President Nixon declared a war on cancer in 1974, victory has still not been achieved. Indeed vital statistics show that the annual death rate in 2005 had almost double what it was in 1974-over 600,000 compared to 380,000. This in spite of the billions of dollars being spent annually by the nations of the world. Could the failure of this war lie in our tactics or strategy?
Before I address this issue let us turn to another war we are engaged on, namely a war on terrorism. It seems that here too we also are not achieving victory in spite of the billions being spent on the latest weaponary -planes, guided missels, tanks etc. and of course human lives. The enemy or enemies embarrass us with their simplistic weaponary of guerilla tactics and suicide bombers.
Similarily in the war on cancer we attack the enemy ( tumors ) with our most sophisticated weapons: surgery( cut out the tumor); - chemotherapy (cell killing agents ); and radiotherapy (burning tactics )
Our oncologists should instead be finding more about our enemy yhe tumor cells behaves- tumor biology. Instead like the generals who fight terrorists our goal seems to be one of annihilation. Granted we cant talk and negogiate with cancer cells but we should be able to find out the biology of tumors- why for example after cell division cancer cells do not undergo cell differentiation and maturation into their respective tissue but rather just re-enter the division or mitotic cycle.
It is estimated that each year 20 % of our medical knowledge becomes obsolete. When you combine the limited dedication most practicing physicians make to acquiring new medical knowledge after graduation together with the learning curve of scientists who are employed in the laboratories of drug companies on the biology of cancer it is not surprrising that we have not won the war on cancer -only a few battles.
One specialist in the field of Alternative Medicine (Dr. David G. Williams ) claims that "Over 50 % of todays health advice is out of date". I will only mention a couple of areas cited by him.
High cholesterol doesn't cause heart attacks (atherosclerosis is an inflammatory process), therefore taking statin drugs to lower cholesterol should not be practiced and some might even consider it a form of malpractice. Hormone replacement therapy (postmenopausal women ) is still widely practiced even though it not only increases the risk for breast cancers, but also blood clots, heart attacks and even strokes. There is a non surgical treatment for cataracts that patients are not informed about because many doctors don't know about it.