Cause and Effect of Cancer
Cause and effect of global cancer Cancer is a leading cause of death globally. Three-quarter of cancer deaths occur in developing countries or the third world (WHO, 2010). If current knowledge were put into practice, at least one-third of cancer cases could be prevented, another third could be detected early, treated and cured; and suffering could be alleviated through palliative care for patients with advanced cancers. (WHO, 2009) In low- and middle-income countries, cancer overwhelmingly affects the poor. This has huge implications for human suffering, health systems, health budgets and the drive to reduce poverty.
There are around 30 million new cases of cancer per year in the world. Attributed to changes in risk factors, such as lifestyle trends associated with economic development and threat of cancer caused by infectious diseases, as well as changes in diet, more and more crowded living conditions and an increase in tobacco use in developing countries. (WHO, 2010)A trend is beginning to emerge in some developing countries. There is less and less physical activity in our daily lives, at work and at home, as well getting from place to place.
Cancer has become more and more serious in developing countries or the third world. There are numerous factors lead to this situation, but there are four main causes: few specialists, equipment, chronic infections and lack of awareness. The first cause is not having enough resource people, such as oncologist, cancer specialists. There are 15 Africa countries do not have possess even a single radiation therapy machine, only 20%of patients survive cancer (Margaret Chan, 2010). The second factor is that we do not have the resources to buy equipment.
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Such as the lack of radiation therapy machines, without budget available ministries of health. The problem is most severe in sub Saharan Africa, where 80 percent of the continent’s one billion inhabitants live without proper access to basic radiotherapy and related cancer services. (Veronica Riemer, 2010) The third issue is that chronic infections are leading risk factors for cancer in low- and middle-income countries, such as hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Programme on Cancer Control has focused on the needs of developing countries or the third world. WHO-IAEA,2009) IAEA offers unparalleled expertise in radiation medicine, a vital component of cancer diagnosis and treatment. For an agency that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Later that year, the IAEA established its Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) to help expand radiotherapy capacity in developing countries or the third world and build partnerships to deal with the huge disparities that exist in cancer care services. After that, PACT, WHO and other key international cancer organizations have undertaken increasingly productive collaboration, working together to tackle the crisis on a broad, multidisciplinary front.
The fourth cause is the lack of awareness about the seriousness of the cancer threat. World Cancer Day on 4 February of each year is to have an opportunity to launch key messages to people (WHO, 2010). WHO is taking significant measures to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases. A key achievement has been the entry into force this past year of the first-ever WHO global health treaty. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is a major step towards the goal of reducing tobacco use, which is the leading preventable cause of cancer.
To date, 121 countries have ratified the treaty (WHO, 2006). Despite significant advances in medical science over the last 100 years, cancer remains the main cause of death. In developed countries, a number of factors lead to cancer and different regions have different leading causes. The amount of lung cancer has occupied most of the field of cancer all over the world and increasing rates of mortality are also significant especially in the US and Russia. A number of factors lead to lung cancer and they can be divided into inside and outside factors.
Inside factors are about bad lifestyle habits including frequently smoking and alcohol consumption and human internal factors which mean inheriting by families (Konobeevskaia, I. N, et al, 2002). However, occupational factor and air pollution can also lead to lung cancer. People are engaged in radioactive substance such as uranium and radium as well as their derivates such as asbestos and tar asphalt. These do badly harm to body health. Consequently, a growing number of people get lung cancer. In Russian, it has been reported by WHO (2000) that there are 150 000 deaths every year and only 15% survival rates.
However, this digital data still does not work efficiently. There is increasing number of people frequently smoking. So, more advanced equipments should be provided by government and higher protection awareness should be developed among general public. The second is Australia that has the highest skin cancer incidence and mortality rates in the world. The reason for this is due in part to the high ambient UV radiation levels, combined with a predominantly susceptible fair-skinned population (WHO, 2010) Especially, Australia nears to the South Pole and ozone hole also enhances the risk.
However, Australian are not like other countries people, they enjoy the life full of sunshine and do not have the concept of lessening the time of sunshine It has been reported by WHO (2000) that 1200 people died every year in Australia. The third one is there are less cancer in Japan. According to the data statistics, Japan has lower death rate of cancer compared with other developed countries. (WHO, 2000). This is owing to the advanced equipment provided by government, healthy living habits of people and the high protection awareness among the general public.
Nowadays, cancer is considered a calamity in developed, industrialized countries, the situation has changed tremendously. Developing countries load over half of the cancer burden (i. e. , those with low- and medium-income economies). To some degree, Human beings ought to improve the awareness, know more professional knowledge about cancer to avoid the spread maximally. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the global health. (i. e. , those with low- and medium-income economies) Nowadays, according to Global Health Council (2011), cancer is regarded as the heaviest burden in developing countries, because there are 7. million people die each year while 4. 8 million deaths happen in poor countries. This is caused by several factors. The first and the most important factor is poverty (International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, 2011). For example, in some African countries, fewer than 15 percent of cervical and breast cancer patients survive for 5 years because of having no money to pay for the high health care. (G. H. C. 2011). Besides, lack of human resources to provide health care and lack of resources for managing cancer also makes the “burden” become heavier and more serious.
I. N. C. T. R. (2011) points out that nearly 95% of the world cancer resources are in developed countries, however, only the rest 5% are being used in developing countries. Apart from these two main factors, I. N. C. T. R states that limited government funds for health care expenditure and lack of health care professionals trained in cancer care are the other reasons. Cancer has become the most significant health issue in developing countries, and developed countries, as a most important part of the global health issue, are willing to help developing countries in many ways. Global Health Council, 2010) A global call to action for cancer in developing countries is coming into being, which is led by international agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations. This action not only needs from the global health community, but also needs form the local governments to achieve an effective target.
The agendum for this action includes increasing necessary access to drugs for treatments and palliation, expansion of coverage for prevention. To push forward this agendum, the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control (GTF. CCC) in developing countries is convened by many famous organizations and institutions, such as the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Global Equity Initiative, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health. The GTF. CCC ‘target is to design cancer drugs which can be affordable by the world, especially developing countries, and develop innovative service that can analyze the expansion of cancer and cancer’s control in low and middle income countries. The GTF. CCC will work with existing initiatives and learn the experiences form pervious organizations which are designed to eliminate and prevent AIDS or other diseases.
Furthermore, GTF. CCC calls on wide network of services to devote to the health care for women and children. GTF. CCC also attempts to focus on implementation of public policies to expand coverage of existing vaccines for cancer, as well as early detection and treatment of cancers. There is evidence shows that the future about the GTF. CCC’s work will be successful. It states that much can be done even the low and middle income countries do not equip with the most advanced equipment and technologies.
Moreover, successful instances of programmes have been conducted in developing countries which are without specialized and professional services. For example, cervical cancer, this is a significant public health issue among women in South and Central America. Cytology-based screening programmes for cervical cancer have been successful in several countries such as Chile. In Chile, cervical cancer mortality rates were very high before the introduction of the programme. While a recent evaluation of the programme indicated that more than 80 percent of the women who are married have been screened at least once, and the mortality began to decline
With such an awful condition in developing countries, cancer also leads to various kinds of effects developed countries, including economic effects and personal effects, which slows down pace of economic development and brings about a lot of family in trouble. On the one hand, cancer has an enormous financial impact in developed countries, for example, the high costs of cancer care and treatments. In United States, the expenses of cancer care have reached $124 billion in 2010, led by breast cancer. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) predicts that this cost will top $158 billion by 2020.
Moreover, to personally, it is difficult to face the skyrocketing cost for a patient who required treated over a long term. Every family with a cancer patient wants to provided the ultramodern medicine which will cost more, and as insurance companies reduced much benefits, reimbursements on cancer care have also declined. (Debra Sherman, 2011). On the other hand, the influence about family inheritance cannot be ignored. Research demonstrates that the primary cancer site was accurately identified in 83%, and the second and third-degree relatives was exactly 67 and 60%. It is important to encourage clinicians to find more medical records about how a family history of cancer affects clinical management, which could help researchers invent more effective medicine and treatments to against cancer, especially about cancer inherit. Meanwhile, cancer also has significant influence on society, which pushes government to issue public policy. Because the life expectancy is low, especially in poor countries and the death rates from cancer is still really high (see figure 1), cancer has became more and more important issue nowadays, only the efforts of the society are not enough.
Consequently, governments started to release more efficient policies and many public benefit activities are being conducted to help defeat cancer. On the one hand, governments are required to publish new laws, for instance, the EU is responsible for the legislation about how patients are been taken care by researchers to take part in clinical trials. Such legislation is drafted at the EU level and could be used by the governments of each member state. In addition, these laws are passed to make sure that scientific research are promoted and it is really good for cancer patients by a few organizations, such as cancer research.
On the other hand, they are trying to make more social influence. For example, smoking makes a huge burden in Europe, which results in 650,000 deaths each year in Europe. As the leading reason of preventable deaths in Europe, smoking also makes 29% of all deaths in affluent countries. Therefore, a number of comprehensive smoke-free laws including indoor workplaces and public places have been carried out in more than a third of EU Member States so far.
The Empire State Buildingwas lit up in blue and orange to memorize the World Cancer Day by the American Cancer Society and the UICC, such a method will establish a healthier society. According to the influence mentioned, treatments are being conducted in developed countries. Experts argue that over 25% of all cancer deaths are generated by unheslthy diets and obesity. Scientist have caculated that unhealthy diets cause from 10 to 30% of cancer mortality in affluent countries. However, it is believed that cancer can be prevented by changing lifestyle, which means more healthy diet, reduce stress and from sedentary to exercise. In addition to this, a large study came to a conclusion about the connection between behaviours and healthy in 2008. These were: not smoking; keeping active; moderating how much alcohol you drink; and eating five daily portions of fruit and vegetables. Both developing and developed countries are affected by cancer deeply, effects between them are not very same.
In poor areas, cancer could conduct more burden than affluent areas, especially influence about economic. Meanwhile, governments in different areas also have different policy about cancer. There is nothing to doubt that all the people and governments should combine to fight with cancer, whatever how hard it is. More financial and technology cooperation will be proceed worldwide, in order to solve these serious disease cancer
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Cause and Effect of Cancer. (2018, May 18). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/cause-and-effect-of-cancer/
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