Key To Curbing Global Cancer? Axe The Tobacco Marketing

[HuffingtonPost]

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Fighting the tobacco industry's  tactics in the world's poorest countries and ensuring the best  vaccines get to those most in need are key to cutting the number  of cancer deaths worldwide, according to a report by specialists  in the disease.                

Experts reporting from a meeting of cancer organisations  across the world said smoking and other forms of tobacco use are  the main drivers of a growing global burden of cancer.                

They urged governments to put citizens' health above the  financial gains they reap from the tobacco business.                

"The number of people diagnosed with cancer across the world  is increasing. But there are clear actions that all countries  can take which will go a long way to reducing both the numbers  diagnosed from cancer and deaths from the disease," said Harpal  Kumar of the charity Cancer Research UK in a report published by  the journal Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.                

Kumar, who worked with Harold Varmus of the U.S. National  Cancer Institute and others, said those actions included higher  taxes on tobacco products, ensuring health workers set an  example by not smoking, deglamourising the habit and protecting  poor countries from increased marketing efforts by the industry.                

Some 12.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer every  year worldwide and cancer now accounts for more than 15 percent  of annual deaths globally.                

The World Health Organisation's International Agency for  Research on Cancer (IARC) said last year that the number of  people with cancer is set to surge by more than 75 percent by  2030, with particularly sharp rises in poor countries as they  adopt unhealthy "Westernised" lifestyles.                

Smoking is known to cause lung cancer - one of the most  deadly forms of the disease - and also increases the of many  other types including head and neck cancers, cancers of the  bladder and kidneys, and breast, pancreas and colon cancer.                

Wednesday's report also said more needs to be done to ensure  access and uptake of cancer-preventing immunisations - like the  HPV vaccine against cervical cancer - is as high as it can be.                

It said the number of people getting these vaccines was low,  including even in wealthy countries such as the United States  where only a third of teenage girls are being vaccinated.                

GlaxoSmithKline and Merck make the only two  licensed vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil, against the human  papillomavirus (HPV) that causes almost all cervical cancers.

Via: HuffingtonPost