Cancer Factsheet

Why is cancer cases on the rise in the developing world?
Dr. Otis Brawley, a Cancer Expert explains that there are two reasons. The 'good' one is that, the population is getting healthier and people are living longer to reach 60's and 70's. The 'bad' one is that, bad habits like tobacco smoking, high calorie diets and obesity in the US and Europe are being exported to the developing world.

In the USA, 33% of all cancers are related to tobacco smoking and 28%-29% are related to obesity, high calorie intake and lack of physical activity. Source—CNN

Over 1M Americans are diagnosed with skin cancer each year.

In the UK, more than one in three people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. Every year, around 309,500 people are diagnosed with the disease.

More than 30% of cancers could be cured if detected early and treated adequately.

More than 30% of cancer could be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet, being physically active and preventing infections that may cause cancer.

One fifth of all cancers worldwide are caused by a chronic infection, for example human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes liver cancer.

Worldwide, the 5 most common types of cancer that kill women are (in the order of frequency): breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical.

About 70% of all cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries.

In 2008, 7.6 million people died of cancer - 13% of all deaths worldwide.

There are more than 200 types of cancers; any part of the body can be affected.

Every year in the UK, over 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Although it is one of the more treatable types of cancer, particularly if diagnosed early, one man dies every hour from it, says Prostate Cancer UK. (via BBC)

Cancer is expected to rise: ''The World Cancer Report, produced by the WHO's specialized cancer agency, predicts new cancer cases will rise from an estimated 14 million in 2012 to 22 million annually within two decades. Over the same period, cancer deaths are tipped to rise from 8.2 million a year to 13 million annually''
Source: WHO, reported by CNN, Feb 2014.