Notice how new drugs are given the least emphasis of the four factors listed. Plus, one of the biggest reasons so many people are getting cancer is the flawed nutritional advice of the medical establishment.
Anyway, clearly there has been some progress, but we would be in a whole other place if the vast majority of the research dollars hadn't been completely wasted. Not to mention all the potential cancer cures that have been made illegal, meaning that it's not even clear the impact of the new drugs is making up for how the medical establishment is screwing us all to begin with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cancer_chemotherapy#...
2) Regardless, I think your expectations are warping your perception.
Because the article was about pharmacology and I said pharmacology in my post.
"Medical research has basically become an elaborate scam"
I think both you and the author are incorrect. Medical research has basically become an elaborate scam for not just the reasons mentioned in this article, but at least a dozen other reasons as well. If you look at the last fifty years of pharmacological/nutrition research, there really haven't been more than a handful of important discoveries despite the literally trillions of dollars that have been spent.