Cancer is on the rise – WHO

The World Health Organisation says cancer is on the rise, driven by the sharp rise in breast cancer among women.
WHO, on Friday, called for greater attention towards the prevention and control measures to offset people’s lifestyle that predisposed breast cancer to be the leading cause of death arising from cancer among women.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer reported that the global cancer rates jumped to over 14 million in 2012, while over 1.7 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer last, an increase of 20 per cent since 2008.
The report added that the mortality rate rose 14 per cent over that period, with 522,000 deaths in 2012.
The Head of IARC Section of Cancer Information, David Forman, attributed the increase to shift in lifestyles and partly because the clinical advances to combat the disease are not reaching women living in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report noted that that a shift towards lifestyles typical of industrialised countries “leads to a rising burden of cancers associated with reproductive, dietary, and hormonal risk factors.
“Incidence rates remain highest in more developed regions, but mortality is relatively higher in developing countries due to a lack of early detection and access to treatment facilities.”
IARC noted that the trend extended to all types of cancer, with nearly 57 per cent of instances and 65 per cent of deaths last year reported in less developing countries, a tendency expected to further increase by 2025.
The IARC Director, Christopher Wild, said there was an urgent need to develop effective and affordable approaches to the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer among women living in less developed countries.
The report explained further that cervical cancer was the fourth most common type of cancer affecting women, after breast, colorectal and lung cancers, particularly in areas with lower levels of development, which lack access to effective screening and where the HPV vaccine and other services are not available.
The cancer is particularly active in sub-Saharan Africa where 34.8 new cases are diagnosed each year per 100,000 women, as compared with between 6.6 and 2.5 new cases in North America.
Meanwhile, more than one-fifth of all new cases are diagnosed in India.