Cancer is ‘overtaking heart disease’ as rich countries’ biggest killer

Cancer is ‘overtaking heart disease as the biggest killer in wealthy countries’ because of efforts to prevent and treat the world’s leading cause of death

• A study compared records of 164,000 people in 21 countries on five continents 
• It said efforts to reduce and treat heart diseases have cut deaths in rich nations
• But cancer is harder to stop and will ‘likely’ become the world’s top killer 

Cancer has begun to kill more people than heart disease in wealthy countries, according to research.

Heart disease has been the world’s leading killer for more than a decade but, as public health improves in well-off countries, cancer is beginning to overtake it.

A study of 160,000 people across 21 countries found twice as many deaths were caused by cancer than heart disease in the richest countries.

And it estimated middle- and high-income nations see between a quarter and a third of deaths caused by cancer, on par with heart disease in some places. 

The researchers said it was ‘likely’ that cancer would one day become the world’s biggest killer as other countries catch up with efforts to reduce heart disease. 

Cancer is becoming a bigger cause of death than heart disease in some countries because efforts to cut down on cardiovascular disease have been so effective, scientists say (stock illustration of cancer cells)

Heart disease is the second most common cause of death in the UK, officially accounting for 10.3 per cent of deaths in 2018, second only to dementia.

The British Heart Foundation claims this figure is even higher, with heart diseases actually causing more than a quarter of deaths – about 170,000 per year. 

Dementia may account for fewer deaths in countries where it’s not diagnosed as accurately or where people don’t live as long.

Meanwhile, cancer is to blame for about 164,000 deaths in the UK each year, according to Cancer Research UK – about 30 per cent of the 541,000 deaths in 2018.

The way dementia is – or isn’t – recorded on death certificates around the world may mean other countries have unrealistically low rates of the brain condition. 

Research by McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, looked at around 10 years’ worth of health records for 163,000 people between the ages of 35 and 70 in 21 countries across five continents.

During the study, 0.6 per cent of deaths in high-income countries were caused by heart disease, while 1.6 per cent were caused by cancer.

BRITISH MEN NARROW LIFE EXPECTANCY GAP TO WOMEN 

Death rates among women went up last year in the UK while falling for men.

It is the fifth time in the past 18 years that female mortality rates have risen.

The Office for National Statistics, which produced the figures, said they were fresh evidence that the life expectancy gap, in which women have historically lived longer than men, is closing

The figures showed there were 541,589 deaths in England and Wales last year, up 1.6 per cent on the 533,253 of 2017.

It was the highest number of deaths since 1999, which the ONS said was because of the growing population.

Among men, there were 1,120.9 deaths per 100,000 – 0.3 per cent down on 2017. The figure for women was 838 per 100,000 – an increase of 0.1 per cent.

Ben Humberstone of the ONS said: ‘Although 2018 saw the highest number of deaths since 1999, when taking the age and size of the population into account, death rates have remained more or less stable since 2011.

‘Mortality rates fell slightly for males but rose slightly for females in 2018. This is likely to close the gap in life expectancy between the two. We are continuing to see the levelling-off of mortality improvements and will understand more as we analyse this data further.’

ONS experts have pointed to the changing lifestyles of men and women. While large numbers of men no longer work in dangerous heavy industry, and many no longer indulge in risky behaviour such as smoking, women work in the same offices as men and may face greater stresses in making a living.

A report by the ONS in 2014 said: ‘Increases in women entering the labour force over the last 50 years are considered to have had an impact on levels of stress, smoking and drinking, leading to changes in the health of females.’ 

In low-income countries, however, heart disease proved more deadly, causing 3.7 per cent of deaths compared to 1.3 per cent by cancer.

In middle-income countries, the difference was smaller – 1.4 per cent for cancer and 1.8 per cent for heart disease. 

The scientists then adjusted their results to calculate how many deaths could be expected per person per year.

They estimated that in the high-income countries an average of 23 per cent of deaths were caused by cancer.

The diseases were responsible for 30 per cent of deaths in middle-income nations and 15 per cent in the poorer ones, the study claimed.

Poor countries saw heart disease causing the most deaths (41 per cent), while wealthier middle-income (41 per cent) and high-income (23 per cent) were less affected by it.

This, the Canadian researchers suggested, was because the richer nations had better healthcare and more efforts to reduce heart disease rates.  

‘The fact that cancer deaths are now twice as frequent as cardiovascular disease [CVD] deaths in high-income countries indicates a transition in the predominant causes of death in middle age,’ said Professor Salim Yusuf.

‘As CVD declines in many countries because of prevention and treatment, cancer mortality will likely become the leading cause of death globally in the future.

‘The high mortality in poorer countries is not due to a higher burden of risk factors, but likely other factors including lower quality and less health care.’

Cancer may be more of an issue in wealthier countries because of differences in people’s lifestyles, some experts suggest.

Kate Oldridge-Turner, head of policy at the World Cancer Research Fund, said: ‘That cancer is the biggest cause of death in high-income countries is not surprising as many cancer risk factors such as diet and physical activity are linked to social and economic development. 

‘We know that being overweight or obese is a cause of at least 12 different types of cancer and obesity rates are increasing globally. 

‘But we know what works to reduce obesity and therefore prevent many cancers. 

‘Governments must take action and implement policies to make healthy food more affordable and available and create an environment where people can make healthy choices.’

Heart disease is more deadly in poorer countries, Professor Yusuf said, because they may not have access to treatments like heart surgeries or drugs such as statins or blood pressure medications. 

The high-income countries in the study were Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and United Arab Emirates.

The middle-income countries were Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, Iran, Malaysia, Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Turkey and South Africa.

And the lower-income countries were Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Assistant professor Darryl Leong, the co-lead author of the study added: ‘The implications are that in high-income countries, while continued efforts to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease should continue, new efforts to reduce cancer are required.’

The research was published in the medical journal, The Lancet.

Source: Read Full Article