Researchers from the American Cancer Society warned about the increase in the number of individuals with cancer in its latest report published on Friday, which appears in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. The projection is that cancer will see an appreciable 77% increase in frequency by the year 2050.
The research also revealed that there were approximately 20 million cancer diagnoses and 9.7 million cancer deaths in 2022–the most recent year for which data is available–and a number that will reach 35 million by 2050, noted Dr William Dahit, Chief Scientific Officer for the American Cancer Society, to CNN.
Dahit added, “A lot of the drivers for cancer that we’ve traditionally seen in high-income countries, such as tobacco and obesity, these same cancer drivers are now moving into the low-income countries.”
Tobacco continues to be the leading cause of lung cancer; however, experts believe that lifestyle adjustments can help to reduce such risk factors.
Senior Study author Dr. Ahmedin Jemal clarified, “Elimination of tobacco use alone could prevent 1 in 4 cancer deaths, or approximately 2.6 million cancer deaths annually.”
“While cancer might have complicated causes, such as genetics or environmental factors, about 50% of cancers are preventable,” according to Dr. Bilal Siddiqui, an oncologist and assistant professor at the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center.
In the current paper, researchers utilized worldwide cancer incidence and mortality data from the worldwide Cancer Observatory, a World Health Organization database.
According to the survey, the most prevalent cancers were lung, breast (in women), colon, prostate, stomach, liver, thyroid, cervical, bladder, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Lung cancer was also the top cause of cancer-related mortality, followed by colon, liver, breast, stomach, pancreatic, esophageal, prostate, and cervical cancer, along with leukemia.
Although smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, there are other types of lung cancer which are not brought on by smoking.
Hoewever, Dr. Harold Burstein, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, stated that there is still more work to be done in the United States and throughout the world to address the smoking problem.
Burstein also warned that cancer is becoming a “bigger health problem” in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world.