Cancer now biggest killer in Australia, ahead of heart disease: WHO report

[Wholegrain]

Cancer now biggest killer in Australia, ahead of heart disease: WHO report - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

By medical reporter Sophie Scott and Alison Branley
Updated Tue 4 Feb 2014, 2:49pm AEDT

VIDEO: The rise has been attributed to ageing populations and increased screening. (Getty Images: Ian Waldie, file photo) (ABC News)
PHOTO: The rise in cancer cases has been attributed to ageing populations and increased screening. (Getty Images: Ian Waldie, file photo)
MAP: Australia
Cancer has surpassed heart disease as the biggest killer in Australia, according to a new report from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The WHO's World Cancer Report found 8.2 million people died from cancer globally in 2012, including 40,000 Australians.

The report was last released six years ago and this is the first major international update on the disease since then.

It found that cancer surpassed heart disease as the world's biggest killer in 2011, with 7.87 million cancer deaths compared to 7.02 million from heart disease. Stroke was considered separately.

Global killer

8.2 million deaths from cancer in 2012.
Lung, liver, stomach, colorectal and breast cancers cause most deaths.
1.59 million lung cancer deaths in 2012.
745,000 liver cancer deaths in 2012.
Tobacco use is biggest risk factor, accounting for 70 per cent of lung cancer deaths.
Africa, Asia, Central and South America account for 70 per cent of world's cancer deaths.
In Australia and other Western countries, the rise in cancer cases has been attributed to ageing populations and increased screening.

Lifestyle has also been highlighted as a major factor, with cancer particularly prevalent in countries where people have a poor diet and inactive lifestyles, and countries with high smoking rates.

Doctors predict global cancer rates will increase by three-quarters over the next two decades and they expect 20 million new cases by 2025.

Prevention is better than cure

The report says 3.7 million cancer deaths could have been avoided by lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, reducing alcohol intake and maintaining a healthy weight.

VIDEO: Report editor Prof. Bernard Stewart talks about the contribution of lifestyle factors (ABC News)
"About 5 per cent of all cancers is due to alcohol consumption - that's an important part of the preventable cancer story," said Cancer Council Australia's Terry Slevin.

"Let's make no bones about it, alcohol is a class one known carcinogen, it's listed by the World Health Organisation as such."

Research shows women's risk of breast cancer can increase by having as little as one alcoholic drink a day. For men, the risk of tumours increases with two to three drinks a day.

Lung cancer was the biggest killer globally. It was also the biggest killer among men, while breast cancer killed more women.

Mr Slevin said lung cancer was an area where treatments were less successful than other areas.

"That's why prevention, when it comes to lung cancer, is so important," he said.

Melanoma continued to be more of a problem in Australia than overseas, with Australians and New Zealanders twice as likely to be diagnosed than anywhere else in the world.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in Australia, with the Cancer Council putting the number of diagnoses in 2009 at 21,800.

Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia chief executive Anthony Lowe says more than 3,300 Australian men die from the disease each year and one in four men over 85 will develop it.

"Many cancers including prostate cancer are disease of ageing and the population is ageing," he said.

"Unfortunately the lifestyle that we live in Australia - lack of exercise, poor diet and high alcohol consumption are certainly risk factors."

Worldwide there are more than 14 million cancer diagnoses each year, the report found, and it costs the world more than $1 trillion each year.

It says one-fifth of that could be avoided by investing in prevention strategies.

More on this story from ABC Health

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You can reduce your risk of bowel cancer
Can circumcision help prevent prostate cancer?
Big four ways to avoid the 'Big C'
Cardiovascular disease as a whole still the most common cause of death

The Heart Foundation says while cancer may have overtaken heart disease as Australia’s biggest killer, when cardiovascular disease is looked at as a whole, it adds up to be the most common cause of death.

Heart Foundation national director Dr Rob Grenfell says cardiovascular disease, which includes strokes as well as heart and vascular diseases, killed 45,622 people in 2011.

It was closely followed by cancer, which claimed the lives of 43,721 Australians.

Heart disease alone killed 21,500.

Dr Grenfell says cancer and cardiovascular disease have common risk factors such as smoking, obesity and inactivity and could be tackled together.

"As a group of diseases, cancers and cardiovascular diseases are attributable to 60 per cent of the country's deaths and both are largely preventable," he said.

"If we were to have a coordinated approach to the management of these risk factors we would reduce the prevalence of preventable deaths."

 

[IndoUS]

Yeah just read the news on BBC about the number of deaths due to cancer each year around the world. Deaths and reports of cancer is increasing at an alarming rate, hopefully we find a cure soon.

 

[terranMarine]

Yeah just read the news on BBC about the number of deaths due to cancer each year around the world. Deaths and reports of cancer is increasing at an alarming rate, hopefully we find a cure soon.

There's no cure, cancer is nothing more than unregulated cell growth. Cells are supposed to divide and die but when they keep growing uncontrollable it becomes cancer. Ofcourse there are also external factors that can cause cancer but it comes down to having luck whether your body cells function normally which is programmed to die if everything goes well. Cancer patients only hope are chemotherapy, radiation or surgery.

 

[IndoUS]

There's no cure, cancer is nothing more than unregulated cell growth. Cells are supposed to divide and die but when they keep growing uncontrollable it becomes cancer. Ofcourse there are also external factors that can cause cancer but it comes down to having luck whether your body cells function normally which is programmed to die if everything goes well. Cancer patients only hope are chemotherapy, radiation or surgery.

Mate, there are a lot of things that people once said were impossible, heck landing a man on moon was considered as impossible. But with advancement in technology even the impossible soon became possible. Sure, there are no cure today, but who knows couple of years or decade down the line we might develop a cure.

 

[terranMarine]

Mate, there are a lot of things that people once said were impossible, heck landing a man on moon was considered as impossible. But with advancement in technology even the impossible soon became possible. Sure, there are no cure today, but who knows couple of years or decade down the line we might develop a cure.

Will you stop dreaming? You can't compare technology to making drugs. Chemotherapy means using drugs to kill off uncontrollable dividing cells but at the same time they also kill the normal cells as well. This proofs just how powerful these medicines are and they indiscriminately destroy other good cells too. IF you are so optimistic how do you think a miracle drug can be created that targets rapid dividing cells without killing off the good ones? Because the lab guys can't come up with a drug that can tell the difference between the good and the bad cells even with today's modern medical science. You probably don't understand how cell division works, so i leave this wishful thinking to yourself. I can assure you after a few decades there's still no miracle cure.

 

[IndoUS]

Will you stop dreaming? You can't compare technology to making drugs. Chemotherapy means using drugs to kill off uncontrollable dividing cells but at the same time they also kill the normal cells as well. This proofs just how powerful these medicines are and they indiscriminately destroy other good cells too. IF you are so optimistic how do you think a miracle drug can be created that targets rapid dividing cells without killing off the good ones? Because the lab guys can't come up with a drug that can tell the difference between the good and the bad cells even with today's modern medical science. You probably don't understand how cell division works, so i leave this wishful thinking to yourself. I can assure you after a few decades there's still no miracle cure.

That's why I said not anytime soon, cells divide rapidly because of defects in their genetic makeup, if that defect can be realized then who is to say some time down the line we can create drugs or procedures that specifically target those cells. And again I am not talking about next year, I am talking about future in general, so whether it takes them couple of years or couple of decades, I am sure they can and will come up with a cure.

 

[terranMarine]

That's why I said not anytime soon, cells divide rapidly because of defects in their genetic makeup, if that defect can be realized then who is to say some time down the line we can create drugs or procedures that specifically target those cells. And again I am not talking about next year, I am talking about future in general, so whether it takes them couple of years or couple of decades, I am sure they can and will come up with a cure.

I think you should re-read your reply #4, where you truly believe a cure will be found within a couple of years or within a decade. But it does not matter even if you are now shifting to after a couple of decades.

First of all genetics could play a role but there are also external factors that can cause cells to keep on dividing without killing itself. The question has always been how can the cure tell the difference between what cells to kill or not to kill. If this cannot be solved than whatever new drugs may be invented they will still be called chemotherapy.