Almost half of cancer deaths could be prevented
Simple lifestyle changes could save millions of lives
Alarge proportion of cancer deaths is caused by preventable factors such as smoking , drinking excessive alcohol , and a high body mass index �BMI� .
A new study has found that in 2019 these preventable factors were responsible for 44.4 percent of all cancer deaths globally and 42 percent of disability-adjusted life-years ( DALYs ), a measure that provides a complete picture of the disease burden by combining years of life lost due to premature mortality or years spent in states of less than full health .
Published in The Lancet by a team of researchers called �BD 20�9 Cancer �isk �actors Collaborators , the collected data on cancer deaths and disability from 2010 to 2019 in 204 countries takes into account 23 cancer types and a variety of risk factors .
��educing exposure to these modifiable risk factors would decrease cancer mortality and DALY rates worldwide , and policies should be tailored appropriately to local cancer risk factor burden ,” the authors wrote , adding that to their knowledge the analysis they based their study on , called Global Burden of Diseases , Injuries , and Risk Factors Study , is the only one that �uantifies cancer burden with regard to a broad set of modifiable risk factors .
They also added that , since a significant proportion of cancer burden could not be avoided by reducing risk factors , cancer control strategies for early diagnosis and effective treatment were e�ually paramount .
Air pollution responsible for lung cancer in never-smokers
New finding could lead to better treatment
Scientists have pinpointed how dangerous particles in polluted air could contribute to making cells in the lungs of never-smokers cancerous , according to research results announced at the ESMO Congress 2022 , suggesting potential ways to prevent or treat the deadly condition .
Scouring data from about half a million people living in England , South Korea , and Taiwan , researchers observed that exposure to increasing amounts of airborne particulate matter 2.5 micrometres in diameter — which are usually found in vehicle exhaust and smoke from fossil fuel combustion — had an increased risk of causing non-small cell lung cancer �NSC�C� with ���� mutations . NSC�C is the most common type of lung malignancy and one that kills over 250,000 people every year , while ���� is a gene that harbours mutations in about half of patients with lung cancer who never smoked .
Such genetic mutations commonly found in lung cancers such as ���� and ��AS can also be seen in healthy people and are probably caused by ageing . But air pollution might be a contributing factor that makes those mutation swing into action .
“ In our research , these mutations alone only weakly potentiated cancer in laboratory models . However , when lung cells with these mutations were exposed to air pollutants , we saw more cancers and these occurred more quickly than when lung cells with these mutations were not exposed to pollutants , suggesting that air pollution promotes the initiation of lung cancer in cells harbouring driver gene mutations ,” said Professor Charles Swanton , one of the researchers at the �rancis Crick Institute who led the study , according to a press release .
Professor Tony Mok , chairman of the Department of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong , said that the research might suggest medicines like interleukin-�� inhibitors could help reverse pre-cancerous lesions in the lungs , according to the press release .
GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com SEPTEMBER 2022
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