Cancer cases in Europe rising as population ages
Pastor Dale Morgan
Wednesday February 7, 8:05 AM Reuters
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Cancer cases in Europe rising as population ages*
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's ageing population is leading to an increase
in cancer with 300,000 new cases diagnosed each year, researchers said
on Wednesday.
An estimated 3.2 million people in Europe were diagnosed with the
disease in 2006, compared to 2.9 million two years earlier, and 1.7
million died from the illness.
Lung cancer, most of which is caused by smoking, is the biggest killer
with about 334,800 deaths, followed by colorectal, breast and stomach
cancer.
"Cancer remains an important public health problem in Europe and the
ageing of the European population will cause these numbers to continue
to increase, even if age-specific rates of cancer remain constant," said
Professor Peter Boyle, the director of the International Agency for
Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.
The population of the 25 European Union countries is expected to remain
constant at about 500 million. But between the year 2000 and 2015 there
will be a 22 percent increase in the number of people over 65 and a 50
percent rise in those over 80.
Cancer occurs more frequently in older people. Longer exposure to
carcinogens, radiation and tobacco increases the susceptibility of
developing the illness.
"The longer you are exposed in general terms, the higher your risk of
developing cancer," said Boyle.
In a report published in the journal Annals of Oncology, Boyle warned
more needs to be done particularly in Central and Eastern Europe to curb
the increase in leading cancers.
"I think the biggest disaster is the number of people who die from
cancers related to cigarette smoking," Boyle added in an interview.
He estimated that if people didn't smoke, cancer deaths in Europe could
be cut by between a third and 40 percent.
"Tobacco control has got to be number one priority if we want to be
serious about deaths from cancer. It is by far the biggest thing we
could do," Boyle said.
Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in
European men and women but organised screening programmes can be
effective in diagnosing the illness, according to Boyle.
Mammograms have increased the detection of breast cancer, the most
commonly diagnosed cancer overall, but deaths rose from 130,000 in 2004
to 131,900 in 2006.
"Tobacco control and effective population-based screening with
good-quality control guidelines in place would reduce the cancer burden
dramatically," said Boyle.