Number of cancer cases ‘set to double by 2030’

THE number of diagnosed cancer cases will more than double between 2000 and 2030, primarily in poor countries, a United Nations research agency said yesterday.

Dr Peter Boyle, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, said the reasons for the increase included population growth, increased life expectancies and the transfer from the developed world to the developing world of cancer risk factors such as smoking. These added to the existing risks in poor countries such as communicable diseases and lack of health care.

In 2000 the agency estimated 11 million new cases of diagnosed cancer worldwide, seven million deaths from cancer and 25 million people living with cancer.