Cancer Scary Facts

Every year, nearly 60 million people die in the world and out of that, nearly 7.6 million die because of cancer. That is 13% of total deaths. It is feared that by year 2030, 13.2 million people will die of cancer each year.

Assuming each cancer patient survives ‘5’ years after being diagnosed, at any given time, there are approximately 38 million cancer patients in the world.

World population is approx. 6500 million. This means there is ‘1’ cancer patient every 171 persons. In civilized society we all have approximately 8-10 close family members and approximately 40-50 close family members, relatives and friends. This means 1 person in every 15-20 people has very close relative like mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter or first cousins suffering from cancer and 1 person in every 4-5 people has somebody among the friends and aquaintances suffering from cancer.

The most common cancers are

Lung (18.0%),

Stomach (10.0%),

Liver (9.0%),

Colorectal (8.0%),

Breast (6.0%) and

Cervical  (3.5%).

The major cause for all these five types of cancers is bad life style and unhealthy eating habits. Nearly 30% of the cancers are caused because of one or more of the five life style factors. These are

(1) High Body-Mass Index,

(2) Low fruit and vegetable diet

(3) Insufficient physical activity

(4) Tobacco

(5) Alcohol.  

It is possible to avoid these risk factors and prevent cancer caused by these factors. With small changes in life style and eating habits, these cancer causing factors can be easily eliminated.

Approximately 70% of cancer deaths took place in low and middle income countries. In these countries, viral infections such as Hepatitis B (HBV), Hepatitis C (HCV) and Human Papilloma (HPV) caused 20% cancer deaths.

Tobacco consumption contributes to 22% of total cancer deaths and 71% of Lung cancer deaths.

Every year 157000 new children take up smoking.

It is possible to prevent cancer to very great extent with simple precautions.

Also, awareness about cancer causes and cancer symptoms will help in early detection.