In 2017, up to 350 people died from lung cancer related to polluted air. In the just published World Cancer Report 2020, the World Health Organization also lists many other factors that increase the risk of cancer.
- The World Cancer Report is a document issued every 5 years by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an agency of the WHO.
- The 2020 edition focuses on identifying specific factors that increase the likelihood of cancer and emphasizing the importance of prevention.
- Dirty air, nicotine, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle are the main culprits behind the rising number of cancer diseases, the WHO notes.
- The report emphasizes the importance of cancer prevention, as well as education, which should be extended to all, including free, developing countries.
World Cancer Report 2020 is a report on cancer in the world. The document is issued by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an institution operating within the WHO. It has been published since 2003, approximately every 5 years. Each issue focuses on a different aspect of this broad topic.
In this edition, the focus was particularly on identifying factors that increase the risk of individual malignant neoplasms, as well as showing ways to reduce the risk of developing the disease.
There are many specifics among the possible causes of cancer. A lot of space is devoted to air pollution, which, by the authors of the report, has been recognized as one of the most important causes of cancer. In 2017 alone, 350 people worldwide died of lung cancer, the study reads.
Much space was also devoted to overweight and obesity, which increase the risk of cancer, with particular emphasis on breast cancer, colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, and pancreatic cancer of the female reproductive organs. The recommendations also include the thesis that weight loss is what significantly reduces the risk of developing these cancers. The risk increases for people who lead a sedentary lifestyle. They are, more than the rest of the population, at risk of colon, lung and breast cancer, and women are also endometrial cancer.
Another factor mentioned in the study is tobacco smoke. As emphasized by the authors of the report, it can lead to many types of cancer, with lung cancer at the fore. The document also states that nicotine contributes to many other, equally dangerous diseases, and every year smoking-related diseases die all over the world 2,4 , XNUMX million people.
The factor increasing the risk of developing uterine cancer is HPV, i.e. the human papillomavirus. The International Agency for Research on Cancer draws attention to the high effectiveness of HPV vaccinations, noting at the same time that their high cost is a challenge for many countries, and there are also places where this type of prevention is highly controversial and subject to severe criticism.
The report also mentions rarer and less common cancers that can only be prevented in one way, which is the best form of cancer prevention in general: by regularly reporting for tests and being in regular contact with your doctor.
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In the conclusions and recommendations, the value of anti-cancer prevention was strongly emphasized and it was emphasized that communication on health care and pro-health education should be conducted by each country in such a way that it reaches every citizen and reduces social inequalities in this area.
World Cancer Report 2020 has been published since 2003, once every 5 years. It is worth noting here that the current issue is the most focused on promoting cancer prevention and giving specific tools to fight the scourge of neoplastic diseases. Previous editions dealt more with describing the situation. For example, the previous report, which was published in 2014, was devoted to the main epidemiological trends in the area of cancer, with particular emphasis on poorer countries.