Posts Tagged ‘Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)’

The Global Magnitude of the Problem of Cancer

Cancer afflict all the communities throughout the world. At present more than 11 million people are diagnosed with cancer and more than 7 million people die due to cancer every year, throughout the world. More than 30 million people are living with cancer at present. In term of incidence, the most common cancers are Lung cancer (12.3% of all cancer), breast cancer (10.4%) and colorectal cancer (9.4%). In terms of death from cancer the most common cancers is Lung cancer (17.8% of all deaths due to cancer).

For a disease, the relationship of incidence to mortality rate is an indication of prognosis. Similar incidence and mortality rate is indication of essentially fatal condition. That is why lung cancer accounts for most deaths from cancer (1.1 million) in the world annually, because its incidence and mortality rate is similar and it is invariably associated with poor prognosis. On the other hand for breast cancer appropriate management can be effective in avoiding fatal out come. That is why although it is second in term of incidence but in terms of mortality it is ranked 5^th .

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