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Epidemiology Of Cancer Essay

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2.1.2 Epidemiology of cancer
Cancer is the leading cause of death in economically developed countries and the second leading cause of death in developing countries. Based on the GLOBOCAN 2008 estimates, about 12.7 million cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths are estimated to have occurred in 2008. The leading cause of cancer mortality in females is breast cancer, accounting for 23% followed by lung cancer and cervical cancer accounting for 11% respectively. Furthermore, estimates show that, the leading cause of cancer mortality in males is lung cancer accounting for 17% of the total new cancer cases and 23% in total cancer deaths. [2].
In the United States, there are estimated 1.3 million cases of cancer diagnosed each year showing about 570,280 annual deaths. The most commonly encountered cancers include those of the prostate, breast, lung, colon, and rectum. Lung cancer has shown increased fatality rate and is responsible for approximately 160,000 deaths each year in the United States alone. [3].
2.1.3 Triggering/ causative factors
The frequency and occurrence of certain cancers can be attributed to certain geographic distribution as well as risk factors such as sex, age, race, genetic predisposition, and exposure to environmental carcinogens. Geographic distribution and environmental carcinogens such as …show more content…

Virus-induced neoplasia may also be subjected to additional host and environmental factors that may modify the transformation process. Studies have shown that there are Cellular genes that are homologous to the transforming genes of the retroviruses, a family of RNA viruses that can induce oncogenic transformation

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