Cancer taking lives at a fast rate

A study says that in 2007 there is going to be a remarkable rise in the number of cases of cancer reported all over the world.

The American Cancer Society came out with shocking results on the number of cancer deaths across the globe. According to their estimates, almost 20,000 people die everyday because of cancer.

Based on the data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, has been estimated that by the end of the year 2007, more than 12 million people are expected to be diagnosed and almost 7.6 million people will die worldwide because of cancer.

The rate of deaths is not the same around the world as it differs for the developed and developing countries. Developing countries are worst affected because they do not have facilities and medical expertise to combat this lethal disease.

"This cancer burden is also increasing as people in the developing countries adopt western lifestyles such as cigarette smoking, higher consumption of saturated fat and calorie-dense foods, and reduced physical activity," said Ahmedin Jemal, MD American Cancer Society epidemiologist.

The type of cancer also varies among the different sexes with men mostly affected by Lung cancer, Prostate cancer and Stomach cancer whereas in women Breast cancer, cervical cancer and Colon and rectal cancer are more prevlant.

The estimates by American Cancer Society are even more frightening as they predict that in 2050, there will be 27 million new cancer cases and 17.5 million cancer deaths. The main reason behind this is aging of the population around the world.

Recently, cancer awareness has been the main aim of the researchers as they have been publishing the results found on various types of cancers.

Many cancer awareness programs have also been started to increase the awareness among the people about the different cancers and the main causes of these cancers. For example a “Pink” campaign has been started to spread awareness among women regarding the breast cancer and various symptoms of it.

The lethal cancers are different from the ones which are more commonly found. This might be due to the part of the body which they infect. In men, the most lethal are lung, stomach and liver cancers and in women the ones which cause most deaths are breast, lung and cervical cancers.

The rate of survival also differs on the type of medication available in the country. The estimates show that if breast cancer is diagnosed in a woman, there are around 81% chances that she will survive for at least five years after breast cancer diagnosis if she is in U.S. whereas there are only 32% chances of a woman’s survival in sub-Saharan Africa.