Cancer to hit 24m Cases annually in 20 years

One the eve of World Cancer day, a report released on from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) shows some disappointing figures for the global fight against cancer. By 2030, cancers are expected to jump from 14 million in 2012 to 21.6 million a year, and overall deaths are expected to increase from 8.2 million to 13 million annually.

 Lung cancer is the biggest killer, and the report criticizes tobacco companies' push into poorer countries. It said a smoking “epidemic” is “potentially impeding human development by consuming scarce resources, increasing pressures on already weak health-care systems, and inhibiting national productivity.”

The world is facing a "tidal wave" of cancer, and restrictions on alcohol and sugar need to be considered, say World Health Organization scientists.

It predicts the number of cancer cases will reach 24 million a year by 2035, but half could be prevented.

In Uganda, some 3000 new people afflicted with various cancers will have presented themselves at the Uganda Cancer institute (UCI), the only cancer referral facility in the country for treatment by the end of 2014. 

This is because of the increase in infections malaria, HIV, Hepatitis B, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and typhoid. Infection-related cancers include Burkitt’s lymphoma, associated with malaria and affects children between four and seven years, Kaposi's sarcoma caused by the Human Herpes Virus 8 (HHV8) whose risk increases dramatically in people with HIV infection and Hepatocellular Carcinoma (cancer of the liver) caused by the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV).

The UCI director, Dr. Jackson Orem says HIV has accelerated the burden of cancer in the country so much so that 60 percent of cancers in adults at UCI are related to HIV.

“Thirty percent of cancers in developing countries are related to infection. Most cancer patients in Uganda are young and in their prime as opposed to elderly population in the developed world,” he said in an interview with the Observer.

Dr. Orem adds that institute is seeing an influx of children afflicted with Burkett’s lymphoma, a potentially fatal and disfiguring cancer that often develops in the jaw or abdomen caused by the Epstein-Barr virus that is as a result of frequent and ill-treated malaria.

Other infection related cancers include; blood, cervical, bladder and stomach cancers.

Worldwide, cancer kills more people than AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined and has become a leading cause of death in the world. (WHO) estimates that by 2030 more than 12 million people could die from cancer related diseases. About 80 per cent of these deaths are likely to occur in low-income and middle-income countries such as Uganda.

Currently, according to information from the Non-communicable disease unit of the health ministry, 300 people per every 100,000 are estimated to have cancers

Last year, UCI recorded a total of 2800 patients with infection related cancers last year accounting for more than 50 per cent of the cancer burden in the country.

“If the infections are not reduced sooner than later, cancer is going to be the next big epidemic in the country,” Dr Fred Okuku, a senior oncologist at UCI warns.

The WHO said there was now a "real need" to focus on cancer prevention by tackling smoking, obesity and drinking.

The World Cancer Research Fund said there was an "alarming" level of naivety about diet's role in cancer.

Fourteen million people a year are diagnosed with cancer, but that is predicted to increase to 19 million by 2025, 22 million by 2030 and 24 million by 2035.

The developing world will bear the brunt of the extra cases.

Dr Chris Wild, the director of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, told the BBC: "The global cancer burden is increasing and quite markedly, due predominately to the ageing of the populations and population growth.

“If we look at the cost of treatment of cancers, it is spiralling out of control, even for the high-income countries. Prevention is absolutely critical and it's been somewhat neglected.”

The WHO's World Cancer Report 2014 said the major sources of preventable cancer included:

·         Smoking

·         Infections

·         Alcohol

·         Obesity and inactivity

·         Radiation, both from the sun and medical scans

·         Air pollution and other environmental factors

·         Delayed parenthood, having fewer children and not breastfeeding

For most countries, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. However, cervical cancer dominates in large parts of Africa.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a major cause. It is thought wider use of the HPV and other vaccines could prevent hundreds of thousands of cancers.

One of the report's editors, Dr Bernard Stewart from the University of New South Wales in Australia, said prevention had a "crucial role in combating the tidal wave of cancer which we see coming across the world".

Dr Stewart said human behavior was behind many cancers such as the sunbathe "until you're cooked evenly on both sides" approach in his native Australia.

He said it was not the role of the International Agency for Research on Cancer to dictate what should be done.

But he added: "In relation to alcohol, for example, we're all aware of the acute effects, whether it's car accidents or assaults, but there's a burden of disease that's not talked about because it's simply not recognised, specifically involving cancer.

“The extent to which we modify the availability of alcohol, the labelling of alcohol, the promotion of alcohol and the price of alcohol - those things should be on the agenda.”

He said there was a similar argument to be had with sugar fuelling obesity, which in turn affected cancer risk.

Meanwhile, UCI has been chosen by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to host the Virtual University for Cancer Control (VUCCnet)- a regional centre for excellence for Cancer training in East Africa.

Currently, the modern Lymphoma Treatment Centre is nearing completion and it is expected to accommodate 100 patients at any one time.