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Breast cancer continues to top the number of new cancer cases among women in India, while mouth cancer accounts for the highest in men. But stomach cancer claims the most lives of men and women combined, a new study published in the journal JAMA Oncology said.
In the period between 1990 and 2013, new mouth cancer cases in India more than doubled and was among the highest in the world, up from 55,480 to 127,168. In this period, breast cancer cases also more than doubled, from 57,374 to 154,261, according to a press note on the study’s findings.
While stomach cancer saw the lowest increase in men since 1990, at 33 per cent, prostate cancer saw a steep increase at 220 per cent. Similarly, for women, cervical cancer had the lowest increase in the number of new cases during this time period at 0.2 per cent, while breast cancer had one of the highest increases at 166 per cent, the note said.
`The Global Burden of Cancer 2013’ study was conducted by international researchers coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
The study found that lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer deaths for men in India at 45,333 in 2013, and breast cancer was the top cause of cancer death in women, at 45,587.
"Cancer is the second largest cause of death globally after cardiovascular disease,” Lalit Dandona, co-author of the study and professor at the Public Health Foundation of India and IHME, said in a statement.
India, however, showed a different pattern from most countries when it came to new cases of cervical and mouth cancer. Cervical cancer ranked fifth in the top 10 cases globally in women, but second in India. Mouth cancer was not ranked in the top ten cases globally but ranked second in India for men and women combined.
In 2013, there were 14.9 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million cancer deaths worldwide, the note said. And lung, stomach and liver cancer remained the three leading causes of cancer in both sexes combined during this time period. Deaths from lung cancer increased by 56 per cent, stomach by 10 per cent, and liver by 60 per cent.
Variations across countries
In China, stomach and not breast cancer was the second-most common cause of cancer deaths in women. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was the most commonly diagnosed cancer for men in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar rather than prostate cancer. And mouth cancer, not prominent globally, was the second-most diagnosed cancer in India. Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden were the only countries in the world where colon and rectum cancer was the most deadly form of cancer for women, it said.
IHME Director Christopher Murray said that country-specific data could help drive policies to reduce the impact of cancer now and in the future, with strategies tailored to local needs.
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