WHO cancer rate data show’s Australia has worst in the world

Could it also have to do with all the uranium dust (which also does affect New Zealand)?

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WHO cancer rate data show’s Australia has worst in the world:

AUSTRALIA has become the cancer capital of the world and experts say we must beat the obesity bulge to tackle the deadly disease.

AUSTRALIA has become the cancer capital of the world and experts say we must beat the obesity bulge to tackle the deadly disease.

An international comparison has puts us ahead of New Zealand, North America and Western Europe in terms of cancer rates, and nearly double the global average.

We have the highest rate of melanoma and prostate cancer in the world and the third-highest breast cancer rates.

Medical Oncology Group of Australia chair Professor Gary Richardson said one factor behind the startling finding was the nation’s growing waistline.

“We have an obesity epidemic and that is definitely linked to breast cancer, endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer,” he said.

“I think Australians are incredibly ignorant to the entire problem.

“We’ve done well with smoking and skin cancer, the next big thing is obesity.”

The Cancer Council says one third of cancer deaths in Australia are caused by preventable risk factors.

It says the seven key steps to lower cancer risk are: limit alcohol intake, quit smoking, maintain a healthy weight, exercise, eat for health, be sunsmart and take advantage of cancer screening programs.

Cancer Council chief Professor Ian Olver says there are various ways of measuring cancer rates, but the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer GLOBOCAN database has Australia on top.

“There are a few possible reasons. One is that we have an otherwise healthy population where you live to an age where you are more likely to get cancer,” he said.

“Screening programs and early intervention push up the incidence and because we’re detecting it earlier it looks like the cancer rate is going up. These are not bad reasons for having a high incidence.”

The good news is that Australia also leads the world in cancer survival.

Claire Williams, from Sydney, had been married just two months and was moving into her new house when a reminder letter for a pap smear prompted her to have a test that found an abnormality.

When surgeons removed the growth, it was just 0.3mm from entering her bloodstream.

She feared her chance of a successful pregnancy might be over, but ten months after being given the all clear on her cancer, she gave birth to a healthy boy and then, four months ago, a baby girl.

“I count my lucky stars every time I look at my son and thank God I’m so lucky and had that pap smear test,” she says.

The international comparison of incidence of cancer showed Australia had an estimated 314.1 cancer cases per 100,000 population, according to an Access Economics report.

This put us ahead of New Zealand (309.2 cases per 100,000), North America (299.9 cases) and Western Europe (287.7 cases).

Macquarie University’s oncologist Professor Howard Gurney said many of the cancers we count in Australia may never harm the patient, who may die of something else first.

H/t reader kevin a.

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