Cancer is now second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease
THURSDAY, May 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Between 1990 and 2013, the proportion of deaths worldwide caused by cancer rose from 12 to 15 percent. During that time, years of healthy life lost to cancer increased 29 percent, according to data on 28 types of cancer in 188 countries published online May 28 in JAMA Oncology.
In total, there were 14.9 million new cases of cancer, 8.2 million deaths, and 196.3 million years of a healthy life lost in 2013, the researchers said. Between birth and age 79, one in three men and one in five women developed cancer.
The leading cause of cancer death in 2013 was tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer, which caused 1.6 million deaths. Breast cancer was the leading cause of lost years of healthy life among women, and for men it was lung cancer, according to the report by the Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration group.
“Cancer was the second leading cause of death in 2013 after cardiovascular disease, and cancer burden as part of the noncommunicable diseases is expected to increase in all countries due to population growth, aging, and an increasing prevalence of certain risk factors,” the authors write. “Population-level observations of cancer burden and time trends as presented herein help highlight aspects of cancer epidemiology that can guide intervention programs and advance research in cancer determinants and outcomes.”
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