Tobacco and alcohol are the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide

Nearly half of cancer deaths worldwide are caused by known risk factors, particularly tobacco and alcohol, meta-study finds[1] published in the medical journal The Lancet. The authors of the study call for a strengthening of prevention policies in these areas.

The authors analyzed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, which was usedee to estimate mortality attributable to behavioral, environmental, occupational, and metabolic risk factors. A total of 34 risk factors were analyzed and the study concluded that tobacco is by far the largest contributor to cancer mortality, with 22.2% of cases, followed by alcohol with nearly 5%.

Tobacco, the main preventable risk factor for cancers in the world

In 2019, the total number of cancer deaths worldwide attributable to all preventable risk factors (tobacco, alcohol, obesity, diabetes, pollution, physical inactivity, etc.) was 4.45 million for both sexes combined, or 44.4% of all cancer deaths (10 million deaths worldwide each year). There were 2.88 million cancer deaths attributable to preventable risk factors among men and 1.58 million among women, or 50.6% of all cancer deaths among men and 36.3% among women.

The leading preventable risk factor for cancer death in men was tobacco, accounting for 33.91% of all cancers in 2019. This was followed by alcohol consumption, poor diet, and air pollution, accounting for 7.4%, 5.9%, and 4.4% of all male cancer deaths in 2019, respectively. Tobacco was also the leading risk factor for women, accounting for 10.7% of all female cancer deaths in 2019. Unprotected sex was the second leading risk factor for women (8.2% of all female cancer deaths), followed by diet (5.1% of all female cancer deaths), high BMI (4.7% of all female cancer deaths), and diabetes (3.6% of all female cancer deaths).

Lung cancer remains the deadliest

In 2019, the most common cancer murderer Worldwide, of all cancers attributable to preventable risks, in both men and women was lung cancer (36.9% of all attributable cancer deaths), followed by colorectal cancer, oesophageal cancer and stomach cancer in men, and cervical, colorectal and breast cancer in women.

Despite continued improvement in treatments, the prognosis for lung cancer patients remains poor, with a 5-year survival rate of around 25% for non-small cell cancers and 7% for small cell cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.

The need to strengthen prevention policies

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and exposure to risk factors plays an important role in many types of cancer. These findings highlight that a substantial proportion of these cancers can be prevented by interventions aimed at reducing exposure to known cancer risk factors. Therefore, risk reduction efforts must be combined with comprehensive cancer control strategies that include prevention as well as early detection and effective treatment.

In 2015, the UN released the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Target 3.4 focuses on reducing global premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases, including cancer, by one third by 2030.

The study thus highlights the weight of tobacco in cancer mortality and in general mortality. It nevertheless specifies that at the global level, the reduction in tobacco prevalence has been significant in recent years thanks to prevention efforts coordinated at the international and national levels. Interventions through increases in taxes on tobacco products, the development of smoke-free places and the banning of advertising, in reference to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, have played a major role in these results. Similar strategies, including taxation and the banning of advertising are strongly recommended to help reduce the harmful use of alcohol.

Keywords: cancer, tobacco, alcohol, risk factor, prevention

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] The global burden of cancer attributable to risk factors, 2010–19: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, GBD 2019 Cancer Risk Factors Collaborators, published August 20, 2022, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01438-6