Global cancer death toll among women is poised to soar, two reports warn

Toll could hit 5.5 million per year by 2030, with breast cancer alone claiming 3.2 million lives

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Iranian breast cancer patient Farvah poses for a portrait in a studio in Tehran. Cancer will kill 5.5 million women every year by 2030, a near 60 per cent increase from 3.5 million in 2012. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:16pm, 2 Nov 2016Updated: 8:28pm, 2 Nov 2016

Two reports have warned of an explosion in cancer deaths among women, with a toll, mainly from breast cancer, of some 5.5 million per year by 2030.

This would represent a near 60 per cent increase in less than two decades, said an analysis conducted by the American Cancer Society (ACS), released Tuesday at the World Cancer Congress in Paris.

As the global population grows and ages, the highest toll will be among women in poor and middle-income countries, it said, and much of it from cancers which are largely preventable.

“Most of the deaths occur in young- and middle-aged adults,” placing a heavy burden on families and national economies, said Sally Cowal, senior vice-president of global health at the ACS, which compiled the report with pharmaceutical company Merck.

A second report, published in The Lancet medical journal on Wednesday, said the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer alone could almost double to 3.2 million a year by 2030 from 1.7 million in 2015.

Participants begin to break away after helping form a giant pink ribbon to mark the start of breast cancer awareness month on October 1, inside the grounds of a military camp in Mexico City. The disease could claim 3.2 million lives per year by 2030, according to a new study. Photo: AP

For cervical cancer, the number of diagnoses could “rise by at least 25 per cent to over 700,000 by 2030,” mainly in low- and middle-income countries, said a statement from The Lancet.