Approximately one in five people worldwide will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime, and one in eight men and one in eleven women will not be able to beat it.
The disease is still the leading cause of death in all countries of the world, while for the first time, breast cancer in women is now the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer, ahead of lung cancer, which remains the cause of most deaths.
These are the results of the Global Cancer Statistics 2020, published jointly by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the American Cancer Society.
It is estimated that in 2020, 19.3 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed worldwide and there were almost ten million deaths.
The first according to the number of newly diagnosed last year was breast cancer with about 2.3 million new cases (11.7% of all cancers), followed by lung cancer (11.4%), colon cancer (10% ), prostate cancer (7.3%) and stomach (5.6%).
Lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death, with about 1.8 million deaths last year or 18% of all deaths from the disease.
They are followed by death from cancer of the intestine (9.4%), liver (8.3%), stomach (7.7%), and breast in women (6.9%).
Approximately two-thirds of lung cancer deaths are related to smoking.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men, followed by prostate and colon cancer by frequency and liver and colon cancer by mortality. In women, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, and also the leading cause of cancer death.
Researchers who published the paper in the Cancer journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians found that the incidence of breast cancer in women increased as a result of hormonal factors and lifestyle. The reasons are obesity, lack of physical exercise, alcohol consumption, early menarche, late birth of the first child, the birth of a small number of children, less breastfeeding, the use of oral contraceptives, and late menopause.
When these factors work in combination, they increase the risk of breast cancer in women. The study predicts that 28.4 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed worldwide by 2040, which would mean a 47% increase compared to 2020, assuming that national rates estimated in 2020 will remain stable.
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on cancer cases and death remains unknown due to the already observed delays in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, according to researchers.
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