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Happy Saturday, and here are some headlines from Eagle-eyes Warren and Brad, for your TBT file:

07:43 PM ET

Report: Number of cancer cases worldwide could go up 75% by 2030

If current population trends continue, the number of people with cancer worldwide will go up to 22.2 million by 2030, up from 12.7 million in 2008, according to a study published in The Lancet on Thursday. Cases are expected to surge in poorer parts of the world, which are ill-equipped to handle the burden.

For the past few years, experts have been warning about the rising incidence of global cancer rates. In 2009, researchers were predicting cancer would overtake heart disease as the world's leading cause of death.
The new study, led by Dr. Freddie Bray of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, confirms that we're headed in the wrong direction when it comes to controlling cancer rates worldwide.

Bray and his co-authors looked at how cancer cases and deaths for different types of cancer vary among countries with different levels of economic development. The study found that any reductions in infection-related cancers like stomach, cervical or liver cancer (still more common in low-income regions of the world), are being offset by "an increasing number of new cases that are more associated with reproductive, dietary and hormonal factors." Tobacco usage also contributes to an increasing number of cancer cases.
"This study underscores the fact that there is significant variation in the types of cancer occurring in various regions of the world based on different levels of development," says Nathan Grey, national vice president for global health for the American Cancer Society and one of the study authors.
Grey says the predicted increases are dramatic, particularly in middle-income and low-income countries, many of which are set up to deal with diseases like HIV and tuberculosis, but don’t have an infrastructure to deal with increasing cancer cases.
"This will add a lot in terms of human suffering and also in terms of the economic consequences," says Grey.
He says the middle-income regions will face a double whammy because they haven't yet really conquered the infection-related cancers ( like stomach, which can be caused by bacteria and cervical, liver and Kaposi sarcoma, which are caused by viruses), and they face the looming surge in cases often linked to a more 'Westernized" lifestyle, due to tobacco use and obesity (lung, breast, colorectal).
“Sustained prevention efforts are also needed to lower these projected increases. As cancer becomes more globally prevalent, initiatives like tobacco cessation and immunization are crucial in reducing the disease’s worldwide burden," says Dr. Michael P. Link, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Grey agrees.  He says the results of this study are a wake-up call for the global community, but points out that there are low-cost ways to head off this dire cancer forecast: "You can do vaccinations and you can do low-cost screening and you can put taxes on tobacco products to reduce usage and that would make a huge difference."

Post by: Miriam Falco - CNN Medical Managing Editor Filed under: Cancer

Cancer Cases to Surge by 75% by 2030

updated 6/1/2012 11:41:10 AM ET

LONDON — The number of people with cancer is set to surge by more than 75 percent across the world by 2030, with particularly sharp rises in poor countries as they adopt unhealthy "Westernized" lifestyles, a study said on Friday.

Many developing countries were expected to see a rise in living standards in coming decades, said the paper from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France.  But those advances could come at a cost -- an increase in cases of cancers linked to poor diet, lack of exercise and other bad habits associated with affluence and linked to diseases like breast, prostate and colorectal cancers, it added.

"Cancer is already the leading cause of death in many high-income countries and is set to become a major cause of morbidity (sickness) and mortality in the next decades in every region of the world," said Freddie Bray from IARC's cancer information section.
The study was the first to look at how present and future rates of cancer might vary between richer and poorer countries, as measured by the development rankings defined in the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI).

Researchers found poorly developed countries -- mostly those in sub-Saharan Africa -- had high numbers of cancers linked to infections -- particularly cervical cancer, but also liver cancer, stomach cancer and Kaposi's sarcoma.
By contrast, richer countries like Britain, Australia, Russia and Brazil had more cancers associated with smoking - such as lung cancer, and with obesity and diet.

The researchers said that rising living standards in less developed countries would probably lead to a decrease in the number of infection-related cancers. But it was also likely there would also be an increase in types of the disease usually seen in richer countries.
They predicted that middle-income countries such as China, India and Africa could see an increase of 78 percent in the number of cancer cases by 2030.

Cases in less developed regions were expected to see a 93 percent rise over the same period, said the paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology.
Those rises would more than offset signs of a decline in cervical, stomach and other kinds of cancer in wealthier nations, said the researchers.
Christopher Wild, IARC's director said the study showed "the dynamic nature of cancer patterns" across the world over time.
"Countries must take account of the specific challenges they will face and prioritize targeted interventions," he said, emphasizing the need for prevention measures, early detection systems and effective treatment programs.
The study used data from GLOBOCAN, an IARC-compiled database of estimates of cancer incidence and death rates in 2008 in 184 countries worldwide.
The researchers found how patterns of the most common types of cancer varied according to four levels of human development, and then used these findings to project how the cancer burden is likely to change by 2030.
The seven most common types of cancer worldwide are lung cancer, female breast cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer and cervical cancer.