Mouth, breast cancers on the rise in Bangladesh

The number of cases of the cancers most common in men and women have shown an upward trend since 1990 while liver cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Bangladesh, reports UNB.
 Breast cancer accounts for the highest number of new cancer cases among women in Bangladesh, and mouth cancer has the highest number of cancer cases for men, according to a new study in the journal JAMA Oncology.
 But liver cancer claims the lives of the most men and women.
 Among Bangladeshi men, the number of new mouth cancer cases nearly doubled between 1990 and 2013, up from 8,800 to 15,000, according to a message received here on Friday from Seattle.
 Among the leading causes of cancer incidence, the number of new cases of other pharynx cancers in men was the lowest in 2013, at 3,500, up from 2,500 in 1990.
 During this period, breast cancer cases in women almost quadrupled, from 4,400 to 16,500, and among the top ten causes of cancer incidence, the number of new cases of esophageal cancer was the lowest at 2,900 in 2013, up from 1,800 in 1990.
 Published on May 28, the study, “The Global Burden of Cancer 2013,”was conducted by an international consortium of researchers coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
 In Bangladesh, liver cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths for men as well as women.
 Deaths from this form of cancer outnumbered deaths from other cancers in Bangladesh, at 20,300 in 2013.
 “Cancer remains a major threat to people’s health in Bangladesh and around the world,” said oncologist Dr. Christina Fitzmaurice, a visiting fellow at IHME and lead author of the study.
 “Controlling cancer will ensure that as life expectancy continues to climb, Bangladeshi lives are not just longer but healthier.”
 For the leading causes of cancer deaths among Bangladeshis, deaths from liver cancer were the highest for both men and women, more than doubling in number for men between 1990 and 2013, from 5,800 to 13,300,and nearly doubling for women at 7,000 in 2013, up from 3,900 in 1990.
 
 
Among the leading causes of cancer deaths in Bangladesh, the number of deaths was lowest for breast cancer, at 5,300 in 2013, up from 2,100 in 1990.
 Bangladesh differed from most other countries with respect to new cases of mouth cancer, which ranked number one for incident cases in Bangladesh but did not rank in the top ten globally.
 In 2013, there were 14.9 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million cancer deaths worldwide.
 The leading cause of cancer incidence for men was prostate cancer, which caused 1.4 million new cases and 293,000 deaths.
 Lung cancer remained one of the leading causes of cancer cases among men between 1990 and 2013, but prostate cancer cases have increased more than threefold during this period due in part to population growth and aging.
 For women, similar factors contributed to the global rise in breast cancer incidence.
 In 2013 there were 1.8 million new cases of breast cancer and 464,000 deaths.
 Breast cancer has remained the leading cause of incident cancer cases for women between 1990 and 2013, but the number of new cases more than doubled during this period.
 Other leading causes of incident cases globally include cervical cancer, up 9% since 1990, lymphoma, up 105%, and colon and rectum cancer, which has increased 92%.
 The death toll from cancer is also changing as new cases increase.
 In 2013, cancer was the second-leading cause of death globally after cardiovascular disease, and the proportion of deaths around the world due to cancer has increased from 12% in 1990 to 15% in 2013.
 Lung cancer, stomach cancer, and liver cancer have remained the three leading causes of cancer for both sexes combined during this time period.
 Lung cancer deaths have increased by 56%, stomach cancer deaths by 10%, and liver cancer deaths by 60%.
 Cancer is often seen as a problem primarily in more affluent nations, but the disease is an issue in developing countries as well as developed countries.
Even though breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer cases for women globally, in developed countries incidence rates have been stable or declining since the early 2000s.
 The reverse is true in developing countries, where incidence rates are lower but rising faster than in developed countries.
The rankings for developed and developing countries are largely the same when it comes to number of cancer deaths for both sexes, though there are some notable differences.
 Cervical cancer ranks seventh in developing countries, compared to 17th in developed countries, and prostate cancer ranks 12th in developing countries but sixth in developed countries.
 Cervical cancer has a particularly significant impact in sub-Saharan Africa, where it’s the most commonly diagnosed cancer in almost two dozen countries in the region, including Ghana, Nigeria, and Zambia, and the most common cause of cancer death for women in 40 countries, such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.
 Although cancer is a global phenomenon, countries around the world show important variations.
 In China, stomach cancer, not breast cancer, is the second-most common cause of cancer death for women.
 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is the most commonly diagnosed cancer for men in United Arab Emirates and Qatar rather than prostate cancer.
 Mouth cancer, which is not prominent globally, is the second-most diagnosed cancer in India. Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden are the only countries in the world where colon and rectum cancer was the most deadly form of cancer for women.
 “The most effective strategies to address cancer will be tailored to local needs,” said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray.
 
“Country-specific data can drive policies aimed to reduce the impact of cancer now and in the future.”
 Leading causes of cancer deaths in Bangladesh for both sexes, with the number of deaths, 2013 – liver cancer20,267, lung cancer  14,803, stomach cancer 10,385, lymphoma 8,436, leukemia    6,578, mouth cancer 6,480, esophageal cancer    5,914, other neoplasms       5,895, colorectal cancer       5,386 and breast cancer5,309.
 
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organisation at the University of Washington that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world’s most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them.
 
 IHME makes this information widely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions about how to allocate resources to best improve population health.