40 Per Cent Of Cancers Are Preventable: Message For World Cancer Day

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Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Immune System / Vaccines;  Public Health
Article Date: 04 Feb 2010 - 11:00 PDT

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This year, the message for World Cancer Day, 4th February, is "Cancer can be prevented too", with experts suggesting that 40 per cent of the 12.4 million cancers diagnosed and 7.6 million cancer deaths worldwide could be prevented if we applied what we know about avoiding infections and changing lifestyles.

The International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) who are marking World Cancer Day, said such reductions could be within our reach were we to apply "evidence-based cancer prevention strategies".

If someone came up with a single vaccine or drug that was proven to cure 40 per cent of all cancers we would all be dancing in the streets, yet in effect this is what we have says the UICC, except it isn't in one tablet, it's in lots of different bits of knowledge and strategies, we just need to apply them effectively and comprehensively.

The UICC said cancer prevention strategies include simple things like:

• Quitting use of tobacco and avoiding second-hand smoke,
• Limiting consumption of alcohol,
• Avoiding too much sun,
• Keeping to a healthy weight through healthy diet and exercise, and
• Protecting against infections that cause cancer.

To coincide with World Cancer Day, the UICC has prepared a report titled "Cancer can be prevented too: protection against cancer-causing infections" that highlights 9 infections that can lead to cancer: including cervical and liver cancers, which can be prevented by vaccines.

These vaccines should be our top priority, not just in the developed world, but also in the developing world where for example 80 per cent of cervical cancers occur, said the UICC.

The nine infection areas covered in the report are: Hepatitis B virus (causes liver cancer); Hepatitis C virus (a growing threat that also causes liver cancer); HPV (certain strains cause cervical cancer); Epstein Barr virus (causes Burkitt's lymphoma, especially high incidence in children in equatorial Africa); HIV (Kaposi's sarcoma and AIDS-related lymphomas); Helicobacter pylori (a bacterium that can cause stomach cancer); Liver flukes and cancer of the bile ducts; Schistosomiasis and bladder cancer; and HTLV-1 and adult T-cell leukaemia.

The report explains that over the last three decades infections have emerged as an important risk for cancer, and suggests that current cancer research should focus on their prevention, detection and treatment.

Co-author Harald zur Hausen, who won the Nobel prize for his discovery of human papillomaviruses (HPV) causing cervical cancer, wrote that:

"Globally, efforts to identify agents involved in human cancers and to study the mechanisms of how they lead to cancer are still remarkably underrepresented."

As examples of what can be achieved, he cites the development of vaccines that prevent hepatitis B virus-linked liver cancer and HPV 16 and 18 that lead to cervical cancer. He also wrote that where preventing infection has failed, then early intervention can also work, such as antibiotics to prevent infections of the bacterium H. pylori progressing to gastric cancer.

Zur Hausen argues there is a need for "increased awareness of the contribution of infections to the global cancer burden, and, in turn, for actions for integrated cancer control plans to manage those infections".

The present UICC campaign stresses awareness building in the areas of: primary prevention of cancer causing infections by vaccination; avoiding exposure to infections wherever possible (eg changing sexual behaviour, keeping food safely, safe blood products); early detection via early screening and diagnosis; development of targeted treatments for chronic and acute infections; integrating cancer control with programmes for other chronic diseases.

"Cancer can be prevented too: protection against cancer-causing infections."
Neerja Bhatla, Meinhard Classen, Lynette Denny, Johan Fagan, Silvia Franceschi, Serigne Magueye Gueye, Mohamed Jalloh, Zainab Mohamed, Twalib A. Ngoma, Lamine Niang, Christian Prinz, Swee Chong Quek, Julie Torode, Steven Wiersma, Scott Wittet, Wei-cheng You, Harald zur Hausen.
International Union Against Cancer, Geneva, 2010
ISBN 978-2-9700533-0-9
English, pdf version.

Source: UICC.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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