WHO warns men face higher UV radiation risk, women face higher smoking risk
Exposure to harmful UV rays and smoking were the leading causes of preventable cancers among Australians in a major global analysis that found two in five cancers are preventable.
Research by the World Health Organization (WHO), published in the magazine Nature on wednesdayIt analyzed the leading risk factors for 36 types of cancer in 185 countries. Australia was the only country where UV radiation was the leading factor linked to preventable cancers in men.
Tobacco smoking was the leading risk factor for cancer among Australian women.
Australians have known for decades that high UV levels, outdoor lifestyles and a large light-skinned population put us at risk of skin cancer. A 2012 study estimated that 96 percent of melanomas in Australia are caused by UV exposure.
But Professor Anne Cust, cancer epidemiologist at the Melanoma Institute, said what was less known was that men were more likely to develop skin cancer than their female counterparts by the age of 45.
Cust said the study was a warning to all Australians, especially men who typically spend more time outdoors and benefit less from UV protection.
“You can’t change the damage you’ve done, but you can make changes to reduce your future risk,” he said.
Growing up in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, Andrew Camfield spent much of his early years at the beach. She rarely wore sunscreen and believed tanning was healthy.
Camfield’s first warning came in 2018 when he had a melanoma removed from the back of his calf. Three years later, when another bump reappeared above the scar, she was diagnosed with stage three melanoma and underwent surgery to remove lymph nodes, followed by 12 months of aggressive immunotherapy.
Now cancer-free, Camfield remains a good ocean swimmer (he plans to complete the Rottnest Channel Swim in Western Australia this year) but avoids swimming for long periods after 8 a.m. and wears a rash vest during the heat of the day. He constantly reminds his friends and his three teenage sons to do the same.
“I often try to bring back that image [of my treatment] because it’s easily forgotten,” Camfield said. “I just want them to remember the form that advanced melanoma can take.”
Advances in immunotherapy have increased five-year survival rates from less than 10 percent a decade ago to more than 50 percent today.
But surfer and stage four melanoma survivor Craig Brewer said too many people were still suffering from preventable skin cancers.
“Even though I live a normal life now, I would never wish what I went through on anyone,” he said. “This is an unnecessary risk.”
The link between cancers and common lifestyle and environmental factors is well known, but the scale of this relationship is Nature work is rare.
According to the authors, approximately 7.1 million of the 18.7 million new cancer cases recorded globally in 2022 were linked to the 30 modifiable risk factors measured in the study. Lung, stomach and cervical cancers accounted for about half of these potentially preventable cases.
It was stated that 3.3 million cases worldwide were caused by smoking, 2.2 million cases were caused by infections and approximately 700,000 cases were caused by alcohol.
“These three factors alone represent the majority of the preventable global cancer burden globally and highlight where prevention efforts can have the greatest impact,” said Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram, deputy director of the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
“Using this data, we now have information to prevent cancer before it starts and help communities live healthier lives.”
Because there is often a lag between when someone is exposed to harm and when they develop cancer, researchers analyzed the number of cancers in 2022 relative to the prevalence of common risk factors from about 10 years ago.
These risk factors were only risk factors that could be avoided or limited, had a causal relationship to cancer, and were covered by high-quality national exposure data. These included factors such as air pollution, high body mass index and insufficient physical activity.
The largest global share of preventable cancers among women is linked to human papillomavirus (HPV). Australia is predicted to be the first country to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035, but barriers to accessing the highly effective HPV vaccine are hampering efforts in low-income countries.
Professor Karen Canfell, principal investigator at the University of Sydney’s eradication cancer collaboration, said cervical, lung and breast cancer screening programs were saving lives in Australia and providing an example for other nations to follow.
Despite these successes, less than 15 percent of cancer research funding goes to prevention and early detection, Canfell said.
“From this type of analysis, we see that these are areas where many cancers could be prevented and therefore many lives could be saved,” he said. “I guess this [study] “It underpins a clear call for greater investment in programs that actually work.”
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Angus Thomson is a health reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
