• Question: How many people die each year from cancer?

    Asked by blundelltilly to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 14 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Because it takes so long to get all of the information from all of the health authorities, the latest figures for the UK from Cancer Research UK are for 2010. So in 2010, when there were 411,568 cases of cancer, there were 157,275 deaths. This is a lot so you can see why so many scientists are eager to try and find better ways to prevent and treat cancer.

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      Hi blundelltilly,

      Here are the statistics for Germany: 469.800 new cases of cancer per year and 215.440 cancer deaths per year (for 2008).

      To set those numbers in a relation: about one in 200 persons gets cancer during one year and one in 400 dies off cancer. Think about how many people live in your town and how many are diagnosed with cancer each year! (Although the numbers are for Germany, they are probably similar for the UK).

      Furthermore, every fourth person who dies, dies of cancer. The only other disease killing more people per year is cardiovascular disease.

      and I think it is time for a remark to this kind of questions: We don’t know that stuff. We know where to look it up 😉

    • Photo: Mariana Campos

      Mariana Campos answered on 14 Nov 2012:

      I think you have really good answers here from Clare and Susanne, with numbers from UK and Germany 🙂 And I want to repeat what Susanne said: we don’t know all this numbers by heart, so don’t be surprised if, in the live chats, we cannot answer. We need to check in websites such as the one from Cancer Research UK. You can check it as well if you are eager to know more numbers about cancer 😉

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 18 Nov 2012:

      Blundelltilly,

      The others have given you really good answers.

      Let me add one thing – the number of people with cancer is getting larger and larger. That’s not because we’re getting sicker. It’s the opposite – as we get healthier, we live longer, and most cancers take time to form. We get cancer more because lots of other things like infections don’t kill us very often.

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