The projections for the year 2023 are alarming. According to figures from a study carried out by the National Cancer Institute (INCa), Public Health France, the network of cancer registries Francim and the biostatistics-bioinformatics department of the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL), 433,136 new cases of cancer are expected this year. A figure on the rise since, compared to the latest data, projections for 2023 should reach 51,000 additional new cases.
Worryingly, this progression is more marked among women even if men remain the main victims. “Between 1990 and 2023, the number of new cases of cancer doubled, with a 98% increase in cancers in men and 104% in women, all locations combined,” the article notes. Professor Norbert Ifrah, president of the National Cancer Institute, provides an update on this increase in cases.
Le Point: The incidence of cancers has doubled in France since 1990. How can this increase be explained?
Prof. Norbert Ifrah: Since the last assessment, there are more than 50,000 new cases of cancer, this is a real and significant progression. To a large extent, the increase in cases is the result of demographic change, the growth of the population as well as its aging. Three-quarters of the causes are linked to an increase in the population and its aging.
This increase is less significant among women, because they already had a higher life expectancy. Indeed, this demographic change justifies 78% of the increase in men compared to only 57% in women. For her, the increased risk is also correlated to lifestyle.
Why are women increasingly affected?
In women, the incidence rates of liver cancer and pancreatic cancer are increasing by 3.2% and 3.3% per year, respectively. An increase of 4.3% per year is also observed for lung cancer. There is also an increase in skin cancers. For men, the fastest growing cancers are skin melanoma (3.5% per year) and pancreatic cancer (2.3% per year).
About 40% of cancers result from exposure to preventable risk factors, so this should be our focus. Women pay a heavy price for smoking, we are seeing the known complications of smoking appear among them. By 2025, mortality from lung cancer will exceed that from breast cancer in women.
What solutions?
Preventing preventable risk factors for cancer is a priority in the fight against the disease. First imperative, that of quitting smoking. We must also stop imagining that a tan is a sign of good health. On the contrary, it is a manifestation of the suffering of the skin addressed by UV rays.