Increasing Life Span, Wealth Is Killing Westerners
As the media regularly remind us, the West faces an “epidemic of cancer.” Why is it that Europe, the United States and other countries have such high rates of cancer while people in places like Africa or Eastern Europe have such low rates? According to new study there are primarily two reasons: 1. Westerners live long enough to have a high risk of cancer and 2. Western countries are usually wealthy enough to devote significant resources for caring for cancer patients.
In a study published in Annals of Oncology, researchers examined cancer data from 17 countries from 1970 to 1992. According to the authors of the study,
In countries with well-developed economies, general mortality is falling, life expectancy is increasing, and the age distribution of the population is shifting towards the elderly. Because the incidence of almost all cancers rises steeply with age, the number of cancer cases is increasing, while major investment in early detection and treatment contributes to the long survival of cancer patients. All these factors result in higher cancer prevalence.
The last point — early detection and treatment is the most perverse. Imagine two countries, X and Y, of equal population where every year 10,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed. But country X is wealthy with a 10 year average survival time, whereas country Y is a poor country with only a 1 year survival time. After 10 years, cancer prevalence in country X is 100 times as high as in country Y and its media start wondering why it is suffering from an epidemic of cancer while it’s poorer cousin is relatively cancer free.
Source
Longer lives in richer nations ‘increases incidence of cancer’. Lorna Duckworth, The Independent (UK), June 6, 2002.
Tags: Cancer