• Question: what type of cancer is most common and why?

    Asked by redpanda to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 12 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by gothgirl123.
    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      It’s pretty scary when you start thinking about the number of cases of cancer across the world – the numbers are pretty big because various agencies like the World Health Organisation (WHO) collect information from each country so we do have some idea. One of the most common forms of cancer in all countries is a from of skin cancer called non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). The WHO estimate that there is something like 2 – 3 million with this form of cancer – equivalent to almost the whole population of Wales. The WHO reckons 1 in 5 Americans will get this from of cancer in their life time. That’s a huge number of people! Luckily, this form of cancer is usually non-life-threatening but it is thought to occur because of exposure to UV light which comes from the sun, and if you’re daft enough to use one, a sun bed. This is why we are so concerned about the ozone layer because it would normally absorb much of the harmful UV, but as the ozone layer is damaged and destroyed more UV gets through to the earth and we get exposed to it.

      My sister lives in Australia and scientists have found that there is a huge whole in the ozone layer over Oz so when I visited her this summer, she made me wear factor 40 sun cream, even though it was cold and raining over there. So now we don’t use aerosols that contain chemicals called CFCs because we know that they damage the ozone layer and we need to try and save it.

      Phew, that was a long answer, but I’m not finished yet…! After NMSC, lung cancer is the most common form of cancer which is more worrying because that kills many more people. And lung cancer is probably a result of smoking and pollution in the environment where people are inhaling or breathing in damaging chemicals. If you want the full statistics, check this out: http://www.wcrf.org/cancer_statistics/world_cancer_statistics.php.

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Doctors reckon that basically every man who makes it to 70 has prostate cancer. Most prostate cancer isn’t that nasty (by the time your 70, even your cancers usually grow slowly like everything else) so most men don’t know they have it when they die. But I still think that makes about a third of everyone have prostate cancer.

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      hi redpanda,

      the statistics for germany (it is probably very similar in great britain) say most common cancers are

      1. prostata (men)
      1. breast (women)
      2. colon
      3. lung

      and why? Mmh, that’s difficult. It is generally assumed that tissues that routinely have dividing cells are more easily transformed into cancer cells. One property of cancer cells is that they don’t stop dividing. A cell which still can divide is more easily turned into a cancer cell than a cell which has lost this ability.

      Also, the exposure to harmful chemicals is an issue- at least for lung and colon cancer.

    • Photo: Mariana Campos

      Mariana Campos answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      In the UK, in 2009, the most commonly diagnosed cancer was prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. The 2nd were by colon/rectum and lung. But lung is the one that killed more people in 2010. More than 1 quarter of lung cancer deaths are thought to be due to smoking. So smoking is considered the biggest preventable cause of death. Have to remember to show this data to my boyfriend.

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