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UAE may see rise in cancer cases

ABU DHABI — The coming years may well see a marked increase in the number of cancer cases in the country on account of various factors including rise in life expectancy, pollution, uncontrolled use of insecticides and fertilisers, smoking and changes in dietary habits like increased consumption of meat, canned and fast foods containing fat.

Revealing this, a report published by the Ministry of Health said that as compared to the US, the rate of cancer incidence in the UAE was considered low at 79 per 100,000 annually. But, cancer is the third major cause of death in the UAE after heart diseases and road accidents.

The report said incidence of lung, lymphatic, abdominal, prostate, leukaemia and bladder cancer was higher among males, but breast cancer among women was substantially high at 25 per cent.

An international report on the spread of cancer in the world warned against the continued increase in the number of cancer patients annually. The casualty figure may reach 15 million in 2020, registering a 50 per cent increase over the figure for 2000.

The report urged the world to take necessary and practical measures to check the spread of the disease. It stated that cancer was responsible for about 12 per cent of total deaths in 2004, mainly due to the increase in tobacco consumption.

According to the report, lung cancer is the most widespread disease in the world accounting for 2.1 million patients every year, followed by breast cancer at one million patients a year, colon cancer 940,000, abdominal cancer 870,000, liver cancer 560,000, bladder cancer 330,000, leukaemia 250,000, prostate cancer 250,000, pancreas cancer 216,000, ovary cancer 190,000, kidney cancer 190,000 and cancer of the ovary membrane 188,000.

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