Why is cancer the most widespread disease of our time?

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2012 there were 14 million new cases, and of that number, 8.2 million were fatal.

The number of new cases will rise to 22 million over the next two decades.
More than 60% of new cancer cases occur in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.

Global statistics say :

The most common malignancies in 2016 were :

1. breast cancer,
2. lung and bronchial cancer,
3. prostate, colon and rectal cancer,
4. bladder cancer
5. skin melanoma,
6. Hodgkin's lymphoma,
7. thyroid cancer,
8. kidney cancer and cancer of the renal pelvis,
9. leukaemia
10. endometrial cancer, pancreatic cancer

Scientific studies conducted from 2008 to 2012 tell us that the number of newly diagnosed cases is 454.8 per 100,000. Of that number, 171.2 are fatal. Cancer mortality is higher in men than in women: 207.9 in men, most of all in African American men, and 145.4 in women, per 100,000 people. The number of people living with a cancer diagnosis reached 14.5 million in 2014 and is expected to rise to 19 million by 2024. About 39.6% of people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives.

In 2014, 15,780 children and adolescents aged 0-19 were diagnosed with cancer and 1,960 died from the disease.

Cancer is spreading rapidly across the world and, according to the latest statistics, in 2010 it overtook cardiovascular disease in mortality and is now the most common cause of death. The rapid rise in the number of cancer deaths is driven by smoking and obesity, the two most important risk factors.

The number of cancer deaths will double by 2030, predict experts at the World Health Organization, WHO. The number of smokers is also rising in developing countries, above all in China and India.

The WHO's cancer department says that seven million people worldwide will die of cancer this year. With an expected annual rise of 1% in the number of cases and deaths, it is estimated that by 2030 there will be 27 million people with cancer worldwide, of whom 17 million will die. The assumption is that the world's population will continue to grow at its current pace.

According to scientists, men most often die of lung cancer and women of breast cancer. More men die of cancer than women.

Scientists say the number of smokers in some Western countries is falling. In the USA last year, for the first time, smokers made up less than 20% of the population. But the tobacco industry has found more than enough new customers in China and India. Today 40% of all the world's smokers live there. And so cancer, long a disease of developed societies, is becoming an ever greater problem for rapidly developing countries.
What causes cancer?

Long-term stress and a poor quality of life certainly reduce the body's overall resistance, which makes it more prone to developing malignant diseases. Besides genetics, which matters most, the so-called risk factors for the onset of particular malignant diseases are among the most frequently cited causes of cancer.

Recently it has also been suggested that bombing with depleted uranium is a cause of the growing number of cases, so war-affected areas have a high number of people with malignant diseases.

Statistics in Serbia say:

In a single year, 37,000 people fall ill with various malignant tumours and 21,000 die. This year that number could be higher by 2,000.

The number of cancer cases in the country is rising. As in the rest of the world, here too we rank 18th in Europe. Delayed early diagnosis is another reason for the increased mortality from all types of malignancy.

In Serbia mortality is rising by 2.5 percent a year, while in Europe it is falling. That is why screening programmes exist (for breast, colon and cervical cancer), which should detect the disease at an early stage, when the cure rate is highest.

Serbia ranks second in Europe for the number of cancer deaths, and one of the reasons is that only a small percentage of citizens are covered by screening for the early detection of malignancy.

- the most common malignancies are breast and lung cancer, followed by colon and cervical cancer, which places us among the leading European countries.

– Men most often suffer from and die of cancer of the lung, prostate and colon.

– The most serious cause of lung cancer is smoking.

For breast cancer, in 10-15% of cases the blame is placed on heredity, not giving birth and not breastfeeding, an early first menstruation before the age of 12, and late menopause

– stress is one of the triggers in the development of malignant disease, a way of living that the modern age inevitably imposes.

– Thyroid cancer is hereditary in a small percentage of cases, and it is one of the few hereditary tumours that can be eliminated by preventive surgery in 100% of cases.