Is cancer on the increase?

Question

When I was a kid the only cancer you ever heard about was lung cancer. I never heard about skin cancer, testicular cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer. And the only people who ever got cancer were old people or those who smoked.

These days everyone's getting it, at all ages.

Answer 1

Hi I am an Oncologist and your question actually helped me too

It is true that we all hear about cancer more often, the disease which was initially just "something bad happening to somebody" is actuallly being seen by more and more people in their household..

The observation can be explained by the facts that:

-Increased life expectency among common man so cancer which strikes in old age is now more visible
-Increased access to health care so that now early diagnosis helps detection i.e. the cases that wouldn't have been diagnosed (but occuring nevertheless) some time back now get diagnosed and add to numbers and "incidence" figures
-Increased awareness amongst people so now people get their regular screenings done like for Breast cancer, colon cancer or prostate cancer
-Newer developments in Radiotherapy, Chemo and Surgery techniques, so that now there are treatment options for patients who never had any earlier.

Above facts will indeed lead to more and more VISIBILITY of cancer patients around us

I searched the SEER (Survival Epidemiology and end results, published by National Cancer Institute) data and found that cancer incidence also increased during recent times, though is now on slightly decreasing trend, but it did increase.

So we can say that your observation is a result of among other things also because of your increased awareness

http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/all.html?statfacts_page=all.html&x=10&y=16

Answer 2

Cancer only seems to be on the increase because it gets more attention than any other disease, and people like Cindy Crawford only help cancer's popularity.

But the truth is cancer has been on the decline since the early 90's thanks to new technology and medicine. A big reason why it seems like it is increasing is because of the evergrowing population of the US as well as other countries, making the proportions of yearly cancer deaths disproportional. But if you read the article, cancer death rates are slowing down dramatically in comparison to population growth.

So stop thinking cancer is a growing problem because it's actually a diminishing problem. Maybe if we had control of the world's birth population in combination to eating healthier and stop smoking, the number would go down dramatically (weight problems and obesity also contribute to common forms of cancer like colon and breast).

Answer 3

Cancer rates per capita are likely stable, what has changed is that diagnosing cancer has become much better, cancer treatments are resulting in much better survival rates, and as a society we have become more open and talk about cancer. The downside to this is a lot of unscrupulous people write & sell books about ridiculous diets & strange cures.

As one source has it:

"More cancer is found (good for fearmongers) and more cancer is cured (good for physicians), but nothing has really changed (the public gets bamboozled again)!"

Answer 4

i dont think cancer is on the increase but the detection of cancer has improved so much that it is being found early in people and not being missed i also believe more people are now aware of self checking ie:- breast, testis, abnormal raised moles ect and are not as affraid to go to a doctor if they find any suspicious abnormal lumps. and that is why i believe we here more about cancer now than we did 10 years ago.

Answer 5

Cancer is definitely on the increase. You can thank a variety of factors: Chernobyl poisoned half of Russia and God only knows the affects on the children of most Europen people over the next generation to come....Air pollution, UVA/B rays thanks to the greenhouse effect more cancer-causing rays are getting through than was true of in the past; toxins and chemicals in our water (benzene was found in a cola producing plant in the states, was in the water therefore in the cola and it causes cancer) PCBs were long just dumped into the lakes and oceans, in fact people would put toxic biohazardous waste in barrels and dump them in the ocean...many are disintegrating now and poisoning the waters. Nobody knows how many were dumped...many by Russia too and what else, pesticides...especially the lovely toxic ones dropped by planes over fields, humans and animals alike...preservatives, fake sugars, steroids and antibiotics in animals, auto and factory toxins and poisonous fumes and chemicals pumped into the atmosphere and water (because it costs a fortune to have the proper filters in the chimneys to catch all the toxic stuff so you get to breath it and eat in as it drops into your fields, and things like working in mine fields inhaling all that charcoal dust, working with asbestos, tiny carcinogenic particles that imbed permanently in your lungs, and all those many toxic chemicals in factories (glues, dies, starches, and other carcinogenic chemicals).....man the list goes on and on and on and on....it's on the rise darling, no doubt about it.

It has nothing to do with "growing old" but more to do with how long it has taken for your body to finally turn cancerous thanks to all of the above.

Answer 6

Most of the more than 1 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer diagnosed yearly in the United States are considered to be sun-related. Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, will account for about 62,190 cases of skin cancer in 2006 and most (about 7,910) of the 10,710 deaths due to skin cancer each year.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. The number of new cases of colorectal cancer in the United States has been decreasing slightly, and the number of deaths due to colorectal cancer has been decreasing. The risk of colorectal cancer tends to increase after the age of 40.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a major report in which it states that cancer rates could increase by 50 percent by the year 2020. The Report concludes that one-third of these cancers could be prevented by timely action on smoking, diet and infection. The World Cancer Report is one of the most comprehensive global examinations of the disease to date. It provides clear evidence that "healthy lifestyles and public health action by governments and health practitioners could stem this trend, and prevent as many as one-third of cancers worldwide."


Cancer is closely associated with a Western lifestyle, characterized by a highly caloric diet, rich in fat, refined carbohydrates and animal protein, combined with low physical activity. This results in an overall energy imbalance and is associated with a multitude of disease conditions, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arterial hypertension and cancer.

Answer 7

the detection of cancer is on rise,thus we detect more cases.
second reason being that the life expectancy has increased,thus the individuals live longer thus the old age problems like cancer develop.
plus there are environmental factors too.

Answer 8

Cancer cases are increasing partly because of the aging of the baby boomers.

Answer 9

I think certain kinds are on the increase. But as for hearing more about it it's most likely because people are more willing to talk about it. Not to long ago few were willing to talk about personal problems but now with TV and the net and all that people are more willing and able to talk about things, mostly in private.

Answer 10

The result of more chemicals in our food. When I was a kid, bread spoiled after a couple of days. Now it will last for weeks. All those chemicals will cause something to happen to us. Plus, we have more people in the world, so the more people the more deseases.