Cancer cases will rocket without lifestyle changes
Cancer rates worldwide could increase by 50 per cent by 2020, reaching 15 million new cases a year.
The World Health Organisation's World Cancer Report says that if no preventive measures are taken increases of this order are inevitable because they stem from habits - such as smoking - that are already established. However, much can be done to slow the increase, Bernard Stewart, an Australian cancer specialist and co-author, said.
"Tobacco is the major preventable cause of cancer," he said. "But in developed countries diet, alcohol, a lack of exercise and the fact that we still don't eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day are contributory factors.
Professor Stewart cited the cases of Finland and California. In Finland a programme of tobacco control, public education and dietary advice had seen lung cancer rates tumbling.
In California, the most anti-smoking state in America, lung cancer rates in women were falling. Everywhere else in the US they were rising.
到2020年,全世界癌癥的發(fā)病率有可能增加50個百分點,每年可能將出現(xiàn)1500萬新病例。
世界健康組織全球癌癥報告指出,如果不采取積極的預(yù)防措施,這樣的趨勢將無法避免。因為這是從已經(jīng)形成的生活習(xí)慣--例如抽煙--滋生出來的。盡管如此,該報告作者之一,澳大利亞癌癥專家伯納德·斯圖爾德表示,還是有許多手段可以遏制這一增長趨勢。
他說:"煙草是引起癌癥的主要罪源,因此預(yù)防也應(yīng)該以煙草為主。但在發(fā)達國家,人們飲酒過多,缺乏運動,每天攝入的水果蔬菜低于攝入食物總量的5%。這些也都容易引發(fā)癌癥。"
斯圖爾德教授舉了芬蘭和加利福尼亞的例子來說明煙草的危害。芬蘭實施了一項控制煙草的計劃,包括進行公眾教育和飲食建議,成效顯著,肺癌患病率持續(xù)下降。
而加利福尼亞則是美國反煙草呼聲最高的一個州。當其他州的女性肺癌得病率都在上升的時候,該州的這一數(shù)據(jù)卻呈下降趨勢。