Middle-aged face cancer risk
Monday July 18th, 2011
The current generation of middle-aged "baby boomers" may have an increased life expectancy - but it is also facing rising cancer rates, according to shock new figures published today.
The risk of developing cancer in the 40s and 50s has increased by about 20 per cent in just 30 years, according to Cancer Research UK.
The biggest increase has been among women - hit by breast cancer - but men have suffered a six times increase in prostate cancer rates since 1979, the figures show.
In total some 61,000 people in this age group were diagnosed with cancer in 2008 - compared with 44,000 in 1979. The increase may partly reflect improved early detection for two common cancers.
The charity said cancer patients also had a much improved chance of surviving the disease - it has doubled in the 30 years.
Chief executive Harpal Kumar said: “There has been undeniable progress in the treatment of cancer over the last 40 years and many more people are surviving the disease.
"But we must redouble our efforts to ensure that our research continues to discover new techniques to improve and refine diagnosis and treatment so that cancer survival becomes the norm for patients, irrespective of the cancer they have or their age at diagnosis."
* The charity has launched a major project to identify the genetic roots of prostate and oesophageal cancer, it has announced.
It has set out to raise nearly £5 million to enable researchers to study samples from 500 patients at centres in London and Cambridge, UK.
Researcher Professor Ros Eeles, of The Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK, said: “One of the major challenges in treating prostate cancer is determining who needs aggressive treatment – some are slow growing and will never need treatment whilst others will develop quickly.
"By knowing the genetic differences we may be able to identify which men are at higher risk, so we can target treatment to those patients and potentially save thousands from unnecessary therapy.
"The second challenge is that the more aggressive prostate cancers can become resistant to our current treatments. Knowing the genetic make-up of such prostate cancers will help us take a targeted approach to developing new treatments for these cancers that would otherwise kill the patient.”
Tags: Cancer | Men’s Health | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
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