Why is cancer so much more common and widespread today compared to the past?

Question

Everybody today knows somebody who has cancer, and it is not just limited to adults anymore. Cancer rates are higher in every age group today than they have ever been. Why do you think this is? Is it from the carcinogens we are exposed to in the workplace and at home? Or, do you think it is more likely due to our diets and lack of exercise in America? Or, maybe it is that we are around so many electrical devices, such as cellular phones and microwaves? What do you think is the reason(s)?

Answer 1

All of the above. Cells are so complex, it's a marvel they are able to work at all. Remarkably, they are able to tolerate a great deal of wrenches in the works before they start malfunctioning. But, toss in some bad luck...a cyclic aromatic hydrocarbon here or there...and a cell will go haywire. Luckily, your body will usually recognize it and kill it before it does anything bad, but occasionally some will slip by the immune defenses. That's when you have a problem.

Carcinogens are everywhere...in our food, in the air. And you don't have to blame some big company or the government for some of the things. Do you like charbroiling burgers with your backyard barbecue? Well, those little black bits of charred meat contain some of the most carcinogenic compounds known to man (I was tickled to find that the National Cancer Institute distributes a program called "CHARRED" for use in research related to this--it stands for Computerized Heterocyclic Amines Resource for Research in Epidemiology of Disease).

Lack of exercise? Yep. Fat cells have this funny knack for producing hormones of all shapes and sizes and in completely unpredictable manners. That's why things like polycystic ovarian disease, menstrual abnormalities, etc are much more common in women who are overweight. Many types of cancer are hormone-responsive. (I don't actually know if cancer incidence is higher in overweight people--I'm just throwing out ideas. Also you can't tell just by looking at patients because they invariably lose a ton of weight because of the cancer)

Besides that, generally speaking people who exercise regularly tend to have more robust immune systems. It might be due to the simple idea of getting your blood (and thus immune cells) moving around your body better and thus improving their surveillance functions (catching the cancer cells early). That might play a role, but I'll downplay it a little because as far as I know cancer cells usually evade the immune system by not presenting the appropriate antigens for a cell-mediated response.

Electrical devices? Maybe.... It's a little more difficult to see how an electromagnetic field would influence a cell's reproductive cycle or DNA repair mechanisms. The radiation from household products is too weak to explicitly damage molecules (compared to, for example, high energy ionizing radiation from X-rays, nuclear material, etc). Still they might do something. There are things in your cells with iron atoms in them that could respond to an EM field. You might also have some inductive effects on cyclic aromatics (such as DNA bases). Some reaction rate constant changes from 0.50 to 0.51 and suddenly your odds of getting a particular type of cancer just went up by 0.00005 %.

Add it up with all the other little things and you get an observable increase in the incidence of cancer.

A lot of people are pointing out that people live longer now than they did in the past and that the increased incidence might just be due to that. You need to give the question asker a little more credit. She pointed out that cancer incidence is increasing in *all* age groups, including children--and she's right (according to the SEER study which tracked cancer statistics from 1975-2002--see my reference list).

Is there any good news? Yeah. Although more people are getting cancer, earlier detection and better treatments have resulted in a decline in the overall mortality rate of about 10 % over the last 10-15 years. And we can expect that trend to continue as medical science progresses.

Answer 2

I doubt there's any one answer. It's probably a combination of the things you mentioned. Plus don't forget, some individuals are born with a predilection, or weakness, for certain illnesses. In the past--before industrialization--when most people were farmers, their diet consisted mostly of fresh foods, grown by themselves or by neighbors. They bought only items they themselves couldn't make, like stoves, hats, nails, etc. Today, everything is obtained from BIG businesses--even the food industry is such. And their botttom line was, is, and most likely always will be: MONEY. Not service, despite what their ads say.
Sometimes I look at the ingredients in products--not just packaged foods, but toothpaste, shampoo, medicines, etc.--to see what's in them. Although they say such ingredients have been tested as safe, does that mean that, over a long period of continuous use they are still safe, or that all the ingredients together are safe? I doubt it.

Answer 3

There are so many more people today than there were in ancient times that to make a solid comparison is difficult. Also, keeping statistics didn't even begin until about 1870 or so. It's true that prostitution has been legal throughout most of human history. In Sumeria and Babylon the temple prostitutes made money for the temple, and had high standing in society. In Greece and Rome it was totally normal for a man, even a married man, to hire sex workers. (Only women could commit adultery. Men could do anything they wanted with women of lower class. But if a patrician had an affair with another patrician's wife, that was considered adultery for both parties.) In the Middle Ages, prostitution flourished. People were very frank in speaking of brothels and such - on a street where there was a brothel, people just called it C*nt St. The church officials saw prostitution as a necessary evil. The prostitutes often worked for the local bishop, and marched with heads held high in the guild parades. In India the status of widows was so wretched that many of them became temple prostitutes; here they could make money and have shelter and the protection of the temple authorities. Likewise in China and Japan prostitution was widespread and considered perfectly normal. It's still considered normal throughout Latin America, Africa and nearly all of Europe. Canada tolerates it behind closed doors, as does the state of Rhode Island. Don't underestimate the desire of Iraqi widows to support themselves by resorting to prostitution. Iran has a legal fiction that covers the work - people get married for a day. I think a large percentage of American soldiers consorted with prostitutes. In the crumbling economies of Italy and France, American dollars were worth a great deal.

For the best answers, search on this site https://smarturl.im/aDB5D

Answer 4

All of the above reasons you mentioned. I also believe that cancer is genetic and that if one is in contact with carcinogens and there is a history of cancer in the family one is more likely to contract it.
Smoking and passive smoking can cause cancer, however my mother is 91 years of age and smokes! There is always an exception to the rule. My father died of cancer, (he gave up smoking 10 years before he died).
I am particularly concerned about chemical food additives, colours and preservatives found in convenience foods and for this reason I recommend that we cook from fresh organic foods which is sometimes laborious but worth it. Looks good, tastes good and does you good. Some supermarkets are now providing healthy ready cooked meals in the UK, without artificial additives/preservatives, but unfortunately I live in Egypt so I don't have a choice.

Answer 5

It's a First World phenomenon. You're given loads of crap in the form of genetically modified foods, long-range pesticides, new antibiotics that were never properly tested, vaccines with known side effects and plastics used to save and cook food that are known carcinogens.

Because people in First World countries are like sheep and they do as told, they are paying for it now, with amazing cancer rates.

Answer 6

I'm sure there are other reasons and that cancer rates are climbing but it is also due to the fact that our medical science is advancing. There was cancer in the past and we even believe Napoleon died of some sort of stomach cancer.

Answer 7

Probably all of the above.

Also we may not have had the technology to recognize cancer earlier on.

And don't forget fallout from worldwide nuclear testing since the 1950s. Nobody likes to talk about that.

Answer 8

First of all to my understanding cancer is scaring or mutation of tissue that leads to the formation of mutated cells which overproduce themselves causing a problem. However the reason why cance ris far more prevalent that it used to be is because of technology and the fact that we can see cancer cells now when we couldnt years ago

Answer 9

Not long ago, people just died. Now, people are diagnosed with specific diseases before they die. Personally, I think this is a good thing since the medical community can now look to cure the causes (cancer).

In short, I do not think that the number of people who die of cancer is rising. Rather, I thing the number of people who are diagnosed with cancer is rising.

Answer 10

People used to die of other things before they got cancer. A lot of slow growing cancers used to not be noticed. Since there was no treatment, some just died quietly. I knew a lot of people who died from cancer 50 years ago. Smokers, miners. grain elevator workers. farmers.