MONDAY, Dec. 31 (HealthDay News) -- An estimated 7.6 million people worldwide are expected to die of cancer in 2007, with wide regional and economic disparities in types of malignancy and in access to treatment, according to a Global Cancer Facts and Figures 2007 report by the American Cancer Society.
Ahmedin Jemal, Ph.D., of the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues collected data on cancer incidence and mortality from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization. The report includes a special section on the global epidemic of cancers related to tobacco use.
In economically developed countries, the three most commonly diagnosed cancers and the leading causes of cancer death among women were breast, colorectal and lung cancer. Among men they were prostate, lung and colorectal cancers. In economically developing countries, the three most commonly diagnosed cancers and the leading causes of cancer death in women were breast, cervix uteri and stomach cancers. For men they were lung, stomach and liver cancer. Two of the three leading causes of cancer in developing countries for both men and women are related to infection.
"The burden of cancer is increasing in developing countries as deaths from infectious diseases and childhood mortality decline and more people live to older ages when cancer most frequently occurs," Jemal said in a statement. "This cancer burden is also increasing as people in the developing countries adopt western lifestyles such as cigarette smoking, higher consumption of saturated fat and calorie-dense foods, and reduced physical activity."
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