The global burden of cancer continues to increase largely because of the aging and growth of the world population alongside an increasing adoption of cancer-causing behaviors, particularly smoking, in economically developing countries. Based on the GLOBOCAN 2008 estimates, about 12.7 million cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths are estimated to have occurred in 2008; of these, 56% of the cases and 64% of the deaths occurred in the economically developing world. Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among females, accounting for 23% of the total cancer cases and 14% of the cancer deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cancer site in males, comprising 17% of the total new cancer cases and 23% of the total cancer deaths. Breast cancer is now also the leading cause of cancer death among females in economically developing countries, a shift from the previous decade during which the most common cause of cancer death was cervical cancer. Further, the mortality burden for lung cancer among females in developing countries is as high as the burden for cervical cancer, with each accounting for 11% of the total female cancer deaths. Although overall cancer incidence rates in the developing world are half those seen in the developed world in both sexes, the overall cancer mortality rates are generally similar. Cancer survival tends to be poorer in developing countries, most likely because of a combination of a late stage at diagnosis and limited access to timely and standard treatment. A substantial proportion of the worldwide burden of cancer could be prevented through the application of existing cancer control knowledge and by implementing programs for tobacco control, vaccination (for liver and cervical cancers), and early detection and treatment, as well as public health campaigns promoting physical activity and a healthier dietary intake. Clinicians, public health professionals, and policy makers can play an active role in accelerating the application of such interventions globally.

/pdf/global-cancer-statistics-49zjx478re.pdf

Global cancer statistics

Cancer constitutes an enormous burden on society in more and less economically developed countries alike. The occurrence of cancer is increasing because of the growth and aging of the population, as well as an increasing prevalence of established risk factors such as smoking, overweight, physical inactivity, and changing reproductive patterns associated with urbanization and economic development. Based on GLOBOCAN estimates, about 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million deaths occurred in 2012 worldwide. Over the years, the burden has shifted to less developed countries, which currently account for about 57% of cases and 65% of cancer deaths worldwide. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among males in both more and less developed countries, and has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death among females in more developed countries; breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among females in less developed countries. Other leading causes of cancer death in more developed countries include colorectal cancer among males and females and prostate cancer among males. In less developed countries, liver and stomach cancer among males and cervical cancer among females are also leading causes of cancer death. Although incidence rates for all cancers combined are nearly twice as high in more developed than in less developed countries in both males and females, mortality rates are only 8% to 15% higher in more developed countries. This disparity reflects regional differences in the mix of cancers, which is affected by risk factors and detection practices, and/or the availability of treatment. Risk factors associated with the leading causes of cancer death include tobacco use (lung, colorectal, stomach, and liver cancer), overweight/obesity and physical inactivity (breast and colorectal cancer), and infection (liver, stomach, and cervical cancer). A substantial portion of cancer cases and deaths could be prevented by broadly applying effective prevention measures, such as tobacco control, vaccination, and the use of early detection tests.

/pdf/global-cancer-statistics-2012-18pecqxl5v.pdf

Global cancer statistics, 2012

Estimates of the worldwide incidence and mortality from 27 cancers in 2008 have been prepared for 182 countries as part of the GLOBOCAN series published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. In this article, we present the results for 20 world regions, summarizing the global patterns for the eight most common cancers. Overall, an estimated 12.7 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths occur in 2008, with 56% of new cancer cases and 63% of the cancer deaths occurring in the less developed regions of the world. The most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide are lung (1.61 million, 12.7% of the total), breast (1.38 million, 10.9%) and colorectal cancers (1.23 million, 9.7%). The most common causes of cancer death are lung cancer (1.38 million, 18.2% of the total), stomach cancer (738,000 deaths, 9.7%) and liver cancer (696,000 deaths, 9.2%). Cancer is neither rare anywhere in the world, nor mainly confined to high-resource countries. Striking differences in the patterns of cancer from region to region are observed.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ijc.25516

Estimates of worldwide burden of cancer in 2008: GLOBOCAN 2008.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remains a major public health problem. It is the fourth leading cause of chronic morbidity and mortality in the United States, and is projected to rank fifth in 2020 in burden of disease worldwide, according to a study published by the World Bank/World Health Organization. Yet, COPD remains relatively unknown or ignored by the public as well as public health and government officials. In 1998, in an effort to bring more attention to COPD, its management, and its prevention, a committed group of scientists encouraged the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization to form the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Among the important objectives of GOLD are to increase awareness of COPD and to help the millions of people who suffer from this disease and die prematurely of it or its complications. The first step in the GOLD program was to prepare a consensus report, Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of COPD, published in 2001. The present, newly revised document follows the same format as the original consensus report, but has been updated to reflect the many publications on COPD that have appeared. GOLD national leaders, a network of international experts, have initiated investigations of the causes and prevalence of COPD in their countries, and developed innovative approaches for the dissemination and implementation of COPD management guidelines. We appreciate the enormous amount of work the GOLD national leaders have done on behalf of their patients with COPD. Despite the achievements in the 5 years since the GOLD report was originally published, considerable additional work is ahead of us if we are to control this major public health problem. The GOLD initiative will continue to bring COPD to the attention of governments, public health officials, health care workers, and the general public, but a concerted effort by all involved in health care will be necessary.

https://www.who.int/respiratory/copd/GOLD_WR_06.pdf

Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: GOLD executive summary.

OBJECTIVE —The goal of this study was to estimate the prevalence of diabetes and the number of people of all ages with diabetes for years 2000 and 2030. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —Data on diabetes prevalence by age and sex from a limited number of countries were extrapolated to all 191 World Health Organization member states and applied to United Nations’ population estimates for 2000 and 2030. Urban and rural populations were considered separately for developing countries. RESULTS —The prevalence of diabetes for all age-groups worldwide was estimated to be 2.8% in 2000 and 4.4% in 2030. The total number of people with diabetes is projected to rise from 171 million in 2000 to 366 million in 2030. The prevalence of diabetes is higher in men than women, but there are more women with diabetes than men. The urban population in developing countries is projected to double between 2000 and 2030. The most important demographic change to diabetes prevalence across the world appears to be the increase in the proportion of people >65 years of age. CONCLUSIONS —These findings indicate that the “diabetes epidemic” will continue even if levels of obesity remain constant. Given the increasing prevalence of obesity, it is likely that these figures provide an underestimate of future diabetes prevalence.

https://www.who.int/diabetes/facts/en/diabcare0504.pdf

Global Prevalence of Diabetes: Estimates for the year 2000 and projections for 2030

One of the major challenges for tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is understanding the true burden of resistance and its impact on human health, particularly in locations where surveillance is minimal and data are sparse. The Global Research on AntiMicrobial resistance (GRAM) Project was launched to address these gaps. The scale of the challenge was considerable, but after 4 years of developing a stringent methodological approach and collecting/analysing data from many different sources, the capstone GRAM paper was published in January 2022. This article discusses the key findings and reviews the challenges in scaling-up AMR surveillance systems in a One Health framework. The GRAM Project represents a critical first-step in obtaining the accurate data that are needed to correctly target actions to control AMR.

BSAC Vanguard Series: Tracking the global rise of antimicrobial resistance.

1140 www.thelancet.com Vol 371 April 5, 2008 First, as with laboratory science, studies on global health monitoring must meet the benchmark of replication by other scientists. Replication requires that methods be described in suffi cient detail and that data used by authors in their analyses be available to interested researchers. Second, health statistics should be clearly identifi ed in tables, fi gures, and results as crude statistics, corrected statistics, or predicted statistics. Where crude data are presented, the onus is on the authors to justify why known biases should not be corrected. Where corrections have been made, these must be detailed as part of the methods. Where predicted statistics are used or incorporated with corrected data into regional and global fi gures, these hybrids must be clearly identifi ed. Third, uncertainty intervals should be reported that are grounded in some theory of measurement. Wherever possible, uncertainty intervals should refl ect not only sampling error, but also the uncertainty generated through correction for known biases and model fi tting. The Global Health Tracking section will be open to submissions from all scientists—at international agencies, academic institutions, and ministries. Final editorial decisions will be made exclusively by The Lancet. It is expected that the IHME will kick-start this call for papers with six or more reports each year, covering topics such as adult mortality, causes of death, burden of disease, eff ective coverage of inter ven tions, technical quality of providers, aid fl ows, national health accounts, and human resources. Please sub mit contributions to Global Health Tracking directly to The Lancet. We hope this initiative will signal a renewed commitment to global accountability for health goals.

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(08)60499-7.pdf

Christopher J L Murray

Papers

BSAC Vanguard Series: Tracking the global rise of antimicrobial resistance.

Intimate-partner violence and women's health

Setting maternal mortality targets for the SDGs - Authors' reply.

Monitoring child survival programmes in Africa

Robust metrics for assessing the performance of different verbal autopsy cause assignment methods in validation studies (vol 8, 28, 2011)