t has been reported that cancer will overtake heart disease as the worlds top killer by 2010. This would more then double global cases and deaths in the years to follow. Rising tobacco use in developing countries is believed to be a huge reason for the change.
Also better diagnosing of cancer, along with the downward trend in infectious diseases that used to be the world’s leading killers.
Cancer diagnoses around the world have been rising and are expected to hit 12 million this year. Global cancer deaths are expected to reach 7 million, according to the new report by the World Health Organization.
By 2030, there could be 75 million people living with cancer around the world, a number that many health care systems are not equipped to handle.
“This is going to present an amazing problem at every level in every society worldwide,” said Peter Boyle, director of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Boyle spoke at a news conference with officials from the American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Cancer Institute of Mexico.
“Cancer is one of the greatest untold health crises of the developing world,” said Dr. Douglas Blayney, president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
“Few are aware that cancer already kills more people in poor countries than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. And if current smoking trends continue, the problem will get significantly worse,” he said in a written statement