More than 114 000 people were diagnosed with cancer while more than 58 000 died from the dreaded disease in 2015, with lung, cervical and esophageal cancers being the biggest killers according to an international publication.
The report published at the weekend in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, revealed that the three cancers claimed nearly a third of all cancer deaths, with 19 160 dying from lung cancer, cervical cancer and esophageal cancer.
The report, which was based on a study of the global burden of cancer between 1990 and 2015, showed that cancer was the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease.
The report showed that the chances of getting cancer and dying from it varied depending on where one lived.
“The disease burden of cancer is growing in South Africa, and health infrastructure and resource allocation will not be capable of dealing with it unless substantial changes are made and more dedicated funding is realised,” said Professor Benn Sartorius, a co-author of the study, based in Public Health Medicine at University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and also a steering member of the SA MRC/UKZN Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Centre.
In South Africa there were 114 091 new cancer cases in 2015. A total of 58 237 people died from the disease.
In 2015, there were 17.5 million new cancer cases worldwide and 8.7 million deaths. From 2005 to 2015 the number of cases of cancer grew globally by 33 percent, primarily as a result of larger populations and older populations.
The number of cancer cases in the world’s least developed countries grew by 50 percent during that 10-year period while cancer cases grew by 36 percent in the most developed nations.
According to the report, cancer mortality decreased in many countries over the past decade, but in 50 countries, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, mortality increased.
Countries such as Niger, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Senegal often do not have the facilities to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease.
According to the report, breast cancer is the most common cancer for women, but cervical cancer is the deadliest with 5 406 deaths in 2015. Breast cancer, lung cancer and colorectral cancers were also among the leading causes of cancer deaths for South African women.
For men the top diagnosed cancer was prostate cancer, but lung cancer was the big killer with 5 726 men dying from the disease in 2015.
Prostate, esophageal, colorectal and liver cancers were the other leading causes of cancer-related deaths.
Apart from esophageal and stomach cancer death rates all the other top 10 cancers showed an in the death rate since 1990.
The death rate for breast cancer and ovarian cancer grew by 34 and 41 percent respectively, while in men the death rate from prostate cancer grew by 45 percent.
Diverse types of cancer also afflict countries very differently. For example, cervical cancer was ranked the 20th leading cause of death in the United States in 2015; in neighboring Mexico, however, cervical cancer was ranked significantly higher at number 8, with twice the mortality rate.
In South Africa, cervical cancer was the second leading cancer killer, claiming the lives of 5 400 women in 2015.
“The cancer divide is real and growing,” said lead author Christina Fitzmaurice, assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
“The number of new cancer cases is climbing almost everywhere in the world, putting an increasing strain on even the most advanced health systems. But the most rapid and troubling escalation can be seen in countries of lower development status, which can ill afford it.”
More than 2 000 researchers participated in the research for the report.
The leading cancer deaths in South Africa in 2015 for both sexes were lung cancer with 8 515 deaths; cervical cancer with 5 406 deaths; esophageal cancer with 5 239 deaths; breast cancer with 5 180 deaths; prostate cancer with 4 638 deaths; colorectal cancer with 4 348 deaths; other neoplasms (cancerous tumours) 3 120 deaths; liver cancer with 2 726 deaths; pancreatic cancer with 2 708 deaths and stomach cancer with 2 386 deaths. – ANA