Cancer rates could increase by 50 percent to 15 million new cases in 2020. But reducing smoking rates, getting more people to eat fruits and vegetables and boost their physical activity and implementing early screening for breast and cervical cancers could keep these numbers under control, according to the report.

“Action now can prevent one-third of cancers, cure another third and provide good, palliative care to the remaining third who need it,” said Dr. Paul Kleihues, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

The top three cancer killers globally are lung, stomach and liver cancer. Infection plays a much larger role in cancer rates in developing countries than in more industrial nations. Liver cancer, cervical and ano-genital cancers and stomach cancers are among the 23 percent of malignancies caused by infection in developing countries like southeastern Africa and Central America. By contrast, only 8 percent of cancers in countries like the United States and Germany are infection-related.

Increasing wealth and Western lifestyles are bringing more “affluent” cancers such as breast and colon cancer to developing nations, according to the report, which notes that heart disease and hypertension have also increased in these countries.

“Governments, physicians and health educators at all levels could do much more to help people change their behavior to avoid preventable cancers,” said Bernard W. Stewart, Ph.D., of the University of New South Wales, Australia.

To read a summary of the World Cancer Report or order a copy, go to http://bookorders.who.int:8080/newaccess/anglais
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