Washington, March 17: Despite huge advances in prevention and treatment, cancer is poised to become the leading cause of death worldwide as people refuse to ditch bad habits and the population ages, experts have said.
In the United States, medical advances and education campaigns have helped slash the death rate from cancer by nearly 16 per cent in 20 years, American Cancer Society epidemiologist Susan Gapstur told reporters at the launch of a cancer-themed edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association Tuesday.
But cancer still struck 1.5 million people and killed 560,000 in the United States in 2009 and experts predict it will this year edge out heart disease to become the most deadly disease worldwide.
One reason is because cancer usually strikes people later in life, from age 55 upwards, so as people live longer and the population ages; the risk of being diagnosed with cancer has risen: nearly half of men and a third of women will be diagnosed during their lifetime with cancer, Gapstur said.
Another reason is the poor lifestyle choices people make.
With more and more people around the world taking up smoking, Gapstur predicted a “worldwide cancer epidemic” that will help cancer to “overtake ischemic heart disease as the number one cause of mortality in the world this year.”
—-PTI