A recent study published in The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine journal has shed light on the devastating impact of smoking tobacco on global cancer mortality. Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and London, UK, conducted the study across seven countries—India, China, the UK, Brazil, Russia, the US, and South Africa—revealing that over 1.3 million lives are lost annually to cancers caused by tobacco consumption.
The findings indicate that the seven countries collectively account for more than half of the global burden of cancer deaths each year. Beyond smoking, the study identified three other preventable risk factors—alcohol, obesity, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections—that, when combined, contribute to almost two million deaths annually.
The research team analyzed the years of life lost to cancer, concluding that the four preventable risk factors result in over 30 million years of life lost each year. Smoking tobacco emerged as the leading cause, responsible for 20.8 million years of life lost.
Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, Judith Offman, emphasized the importance of understanding the impact of these risk factors globally. “Seeing how many years of life are lost to cancer due to these risk factors in countries around the world allows us to see what certain countries are doing well, and what isn’t working,” she stated.
Notably, the study highlighted disparities in cancer-related deaths and years of life lost among different countries. For instance, cervical screening is less comprehensive in India and South Africa compared to countries like the UK and the US, leading to higher premature deaths from gynaecological cancers due to HPV infection in the former.
Gender differences in cancer-related mortality were also observed. Men experienced higher rates of years of life lost to smoking and alcohol consumption, while women faced more significant risks from being overweight or obese and HPV infection. In South Africa and India, HPV infection resulted in notably higher rates of years of life lost among women, underscoring the urgent need for improved access to cervical screening and HPV vaccination in these countries.
Offman emphasized the potential for HPV vaccination to prevent cervical cancer and called for collective efforts to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem. The study’s findings underscore the importance of targeted interventions and comprehensive public health initiatives to address preventable risk factors and reduce the global burden of cancer.
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