Almost half of cancer deaths are due to preventable causes such as tobacco – Deia

Smoking, alcohol consumption, high body mass index (BMI) and other risk factors were responsible for 4.45 million cancer deaths worldwide in 2019, or almost half of the total, according to a new research published this Friday in the scientific journal The Lancet. “This study illustrates that cancer remains a major public health challenge that is growing in magnitude around the world. Smoking remains the leading risk factor for cancer worldwide, although there are other important factors that contribute to the cancer burden,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the School of Medicine. from the University of Washington and co-author of the study. Using the results of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) 2019 study, the authors investigated how 34 behavioral, metabolic, and environmental and occupational risk factors contributed to deaths and ill-health from twenty-three types of cancer in 2019. Between 2010 and 2019, cancer deaths due to risk factors increased 20.4 percent globally, from 3.7 million to 4.45 million. Poor health due to cancer increased 16.8 percent in the same period, from 89.9 million to 105 million DALYs. Metabolic risks accounted for the largest percentage increase in cancer deaths and ill health, with deaths increasing 34.7 percent (from 643,000 deaths in 2010 to 865,000 deaths in 2019) and DALYs increasing 33.3 percent. percent (from 14.6 million in 2010 to 19.4 million in 2019). In addition to 4.45 million cancer deaths, which made up 44.4 percent of all cancer deaths in 2019, the risk factors included in the analysis accounted for 105 million years of life lost due to disability (DALYs) per year. cancer globally for both sexes in 2019, 42.0 percent of all DALYs in that year. Risk factors Behavioral risk factors (such as tobacco use, alcohol use, risky sex, and dietary risks) were responsible for the vast majority of cancers globally, accounting for 3.7 million deaths and 87.8 million DALYs in 2019. Almost 2.88 million deaths in men (50.6% of all cancer deaths in men) could be attributed to the risk factors studied, compared to 1.58 million deaths in women (36.3% of all cancer deaths in women). The leading global risk factors for cancer death and poor health for both sexes were smoking, followed by alcohol consumption and high BMI. The leading cause of cancer death attributable to risk factors, in both men and women, was cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung, which accounted for 36.9 percent of all cancer deaths attributable to risk factors. It was followed by colon and rectal cancer (13.3%), esophageal cancer (9.7%) and stomach cancer (6.6%) in men, and cervical cancer (17, 9%), colon and rectal cancer (15.8%) and breast cancer (11%) in women. Differences by sex The researchers found differences in men and women in two main categories: behavioral risks and environmental and occupational risks. Regarding behavioral risks, men (33.2%) had almost four times more DALYs of cancer attributable to smoking than women (8.9%). Regarding alcohol consumption, men (7.4%) had more than three times as many DALYs due to cancer than women (2.3%). The higher number of DALYs due to cancer in men may be due to the fact that men are more likely to smoke and drink than women. Examining environmental and occupational hazards, the researchers found that DALYs from cancer were three times higher among men (3.9%) than women (1.3%), suggesting that men may be more likely than women to work in places with higher risk of being exposed to carcinogens. In 2019, cancer deaths (25.4%) and risk-attributable cancer deaths (26.5%) globally occurred disproportionately in countries with high sociodemographic status, although these countries only accounted for the 13.1 percent of the world’s population.