Cancer...Is there more of it around now?

musings · 29-09-2012 08:42PM #1

Okay, I keep hearing about people I know or know of getting cancer. It seems to be particularly prevalent in the last few years.

Anecdotally, many people are saying the same..it seems to be more common nowadays...despite probably the lowest rates of smoking in centuries.

Are there any solid statistics about the rates of cancer throughout the decades? Is there a rise or decline?

mattjack · 29-09-2012 08:45PM

You realise being After Hours exposes you to various types of cancer, AH cancer for one , monocle cancer ...

Turtwig · 29-09-2012 08:47PM

There's more of it around because we know more about it now and can actually identify it. People's lifespan is generally so good now that the only thing medicine really comes up impotent against is cancer and even there massive strides are being made. It's just that cancer is so bloody complex. (What in medicine isn't?)

Intensive Care Bear · 29-09-2012 08:48PM

Cancer, its so hot right now.

Jellicoe · 29-09-2012 08:48PM

Look up the stats

OurLadyofKnock · 29-09-2012 08:50PM

Reduction in smoking might be off set by poor diet, little exercise (TV/Facebook lifestyles) and more booze binging now as gargle is the cheapest it has ever been?

It's probably the same levels - perhaps the reasons for it have changed?

1ZRed · 29-09-2012 08:51PM

Our diets have never been more full of chemicals and our lifestyles are much more unhealthy than they were 80 years ago which would cause an increase in damage.

Reducing smoking would only cut down on certain cancers not all.

Turtwig · 29-09-2012 08:53PM

1ZRed wrote: »

Our diets have never been more full of chemicals and our lifestyles are much more unhealthy than they were 80 years ago which would cause an increase in damage.

Obesity problems aside, diets have improved vastly in the last century. Chemicals? You realise everything contains chemicals?

mitosis · 29-09-2012 08:54PM

OP, it must be something to do with you. I don't know anyone with the big C

Godge · 29-09-2012 08:54PM

Well think of it like this. If you stop or reduce the number of people dying from dysentry, from cholera, from influenza, from heart attacks, from strokes, you reduce the number dying from each of those things. When you have infant survival rates higher than any in the last 200 years, and childhood deaths at all-time lows, that is all good news.

But people still die. Many die of other things. A lot of older men die with prostate cancer. Most don't know they have it as the main cause of death is something else.

Say we cure cancer, then we will end up with an increase in those dying with Alzheimers or Parkinsons. Say we cure that and many other things, we will end up with 200-year olds dying from the common cold. Suddenly it will be the big killer.

So to sum up, there isn't more cancer around, just more people are surviving other illnesses and diseases to contact cancer, so maybe it isn't as bad news as it appears.

Nodin · 29-09-2012 08:55PM

musings wrote: »

Okay, I keep hearing about people I know or know of getting cancer. It seems to be particularly prevalent in the last few years.

Anecdotally, many people are saying the same..it seems to be more common nowadays...despite probably the lowest rates of smoking in centuries.

Are there any solid statistics about the rates of cancer throughout the decades? Is there a rise or decline?

.....for a lot of history, the vast majority wouldn't live long enough to get various types of it, nor would it nessecarily be correctly diagnosed where it did occur. As you get older, its something you'll come across more and more among your peers. That being said, its not an automatic death sentence anymore. I had it and lived.

jumpguy · 29-09-2012 08:57PM

Yup, cancer has shot up in the last 20/25 years. The #1 cause? Less people are dying of heart problems, and living long enough to get cancer.

Infectious diseases used to be the big problem before heart problems, and I bet after infectious diseases started killing less, people were surprised to notice that everyone was dying of heart attacks.

PhlegmyMoses · 29-09-2012 08:58PM

Back in the day people didn't really go into specifics about deaths. You'd hear "He was found dead in the bed" or "Ah, she wasn't well for a while" instead of, "he had prostate cancer."

1ZRed · 29-09-2012 08:58PM

Jernal wrote: »

Obesity problems aside, diets have improved vastly in the last century. Chemicals? You realise everything contains chemicals?

Nutrition has improved but our intake of surger, salt and other things has increased majorly because it's more prevalent in our food.

Chemicals as in artificial preservatives, additives and flavourings in our food over the years. They can build up to give health problems.

bbam · 29-09-2012 09:06PM

Two things have a big influence here...

1. People are living longer, as they get older there are more cases of cancer.
2. Diagnosis, more and more cases are being discovered through better medical technology.

musings · 29-09-2012 09:33PM

I actually think there has been a big increase in the last 30 years, which has been an era of advanced diagnosis.

Even TV shows nowadays seem to have more Cancer storylines than in the past. Characters being diagnosed with cancer is a common topic on TV shows these days...The only cancer fatality I could think of in the 1990s was Alma Baldwin!

Nodin · 29-09-2012 10:06PM

musings wrote: »

I actually think there has been a big increase in the last 30 years, which has been an era of advanced diagnosis.

Even TV shows nowadays seem to have more Cancer storylines than in the past. Characters being diagnosed with cancer is a common topic on TV shows these days...The only cancer fatality I could think of in the 1990s was Alma Baldwin!

...it was a bit of a taboo topic - nobody wanted to hear it, essentially. No big swing now. Unlike sheep bites on the nadgers, which are a hidden problem across many parts of the world.

Run_to_da_hills · 29-09-2012 10:12PM

There will be plenty more of it about if the government dose not place an immediate ban on genetically modified crops and their by products ie beef etc.

Nodin · 29-09-2012 10:25PM

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

There will be plenty more of it about if the government dose not place an immediate ban on genetically modified crops and their by products ie beef etc.

Sure don't eat anything. Thats your problem solved.

Reindeer · 29-09-2012 10:42PM

Diagnosis, treatment and understanding are much better than in previous generations. More people are dodging other diseases and infant mortality better as well. Also, there are over 100 different types of cancer. But perhaps most important is the fact that if you do not die from something else, whether disease, or organ failure, or mishap, cancer will kill you. In simple terms, your body loses it's ability to properly maintain itself - it replicates it's own DNA with errors. The older you get, the more errors. Errors eventually and inevitably lead to cancer. Until cancer is cured, the longer we live, the more we will see it. Basically, cancer is an actual product of how our DNA/RNA works.

Some scientists say that one of the main reasons we do not regenerate tissue as well as some animals is due to the fact that we live longer and sustain more damage to our DNA than say, a salamander, and would have much higher rates of cancer as we aged.

I've spent a lot of time speaking to doctors and physicists about cancer as I was a field engineer for Philips Medical Systems for a few years. I have installed about a dozen radiotherapy systems at MD Anderson in Houston, TX. Here is their video explaining cancer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_wRpa2b5XI

yore · 29-09-2012 11:52PM

I'm as serious as cancer....

....when I say... rhythm is a dancer

mike65 · 29-09-2012 11:58PM

Stay alive long enough and chances are you'll die from a cancer.

efb · 30-09-2012 12:00AM

people are living long enough to get cancer, that the reason for the increase

say_who_now? · 30-09-2012 12:08AM

musings wrote: »

Okay, I keep hearing about people I know or know of getting cancer. It seems to be particularly prevalent in the last few years.

Anecdotally, many people are saying the same..it seems to be more common nowadays...despite probably the lowest rates of smoking in centuries.

Are there any solid statistics about the rates of cancer throughout the decades? Is there a rise or decline?

You would've been a lot younger many years ago too, so you wouldn't have paid as much attention to people who had died of cancer, but as you're now older and more into your adult years, you are exposed to more and more anecdotal cancer stories- among friends and relatives, in the media, etc.

Prick! · 30-09-2012 12:12AM

Shocked by the general concensus that just because living longer means more chance to get cancer. It's terrible the amount of 40-50 year olds that are getting it.

I blame radiation from masts.

Capt'n Midnight · 30-09-2012 12:12AM

It's simply that most people now live long enough to get cancer and that healthcare has improved to be able to diagnose it.

Capt'n Midnight · 30-09-2012 12:20AM

humbert · 30-09-2012 12:31AM

There's a lot of overlap with the mail. It could be killing you and saving you at the same time!

http://kill-or-cure.heroku.com/

sixtynine2 · 30-09-2012 12:45AM

Cancer has always been around. Even years ago. People didn't know why some people died back then though. It was Cancer.

30-09-2012 12:57AM

Living longer and proper diagnosis is why rates may seem higher. The classic "died of old age" from age 60 onwards doesn't apply any more. Hell for a while there were suggestions that smoking might lower rates of Alzheimer's but it may just be that the lower life expectancy meant less time for it to develop. :pac:

As for all the "chemicals" we're exposed to now, it's pretty quickly obvious when someone mentions "free radicals" or anto whether they've studied the topic or have read an article on some website that sells "natural" or "herbal" dietary supplements.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 30-09-2012 01:06AM

The industrial revolution apparently sparked the rise of cancer as the top killer. When you think about modern society today, people tell us that a 101 different things cause the disease. I suppose lifestyles and the things we're exposed to each day can have an effect.

Cancer...Is there more of it around now?

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