Cancer will be the leading cause of deaths by 2030: Report

United States, December 10: A new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has predicted that over the next two decades, cancer death rate will drastically shoot up with rocket pace becoming more than double worldwide.

Low and middle-income countries will witness a dramatic rise in cancer incidences. Wide tobacco use and Westernized lifestyles will become the main reason for more and more cancer deaths. Thus, by 2010 cancer will become the leading cause of death across the world.

The report has put forth in its predictions that 27 million new cancer cases and 17 million cancer deaths will be seen by 2030 around the globe (per year the statistic may increase after 2030). Following the present trends, the rate of cancer detection will rise by 1 percent each year. China, Russia and India will probably witness biggest increase in cancer death rate and in poor and middle-income countries, smoking and lifestyle disorders will become leading cause of cancer.

IARC Director Peter Boyle, MD maintains that looming threat of cancer in encompassing less industrialized regions now as opposite to earlier trends.
He added, “Forty years ago, cancer was primarily a disease of high-resource, industrialized countries…That isn't true anymore. When we think of low-resource countries, we think of communicable diseases as the big killers. But each year more people across the globe die of cancer than die of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined."

Experts have predicted that by 2020 cancer incidences will double and by 2030 they will triple.

According to the report, approximately 1.3 billion people smoke worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 12% of cancers in low-income countries (the figure is expected to rise significantly in future). It further stated that at present more people die of lung cancer as compared with any other cancer, incidences of breast cancer will also rise in poor countries and more people die of cervical cancer especially in Africa.

Taking into consideration the seriousness of the issuein the United States, the American Cancer Society (ACS) and other cancer groups will bring the issue to the notice of Obama and immediate actions will be demanded on part of the incoming administration.