From year to year, data on cancer evolves in France. According to the latest figures unveiled at an international conference organized by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) and the National Cancer Institute (Inca) as part of the 2009-2013 Cancer Plan, in 2011, 365,000 additional cases of cancer have been diagnosed in France (Doctors recorded 357,500 new cases last year). But, as was already the case in 2010, this increase in the annual cancer incidence rate is also associated with a decrease in the death rate.
Cancer figures: the reasons
According to the experts present at this conference, the increase in the population, its aging and the increased risk of certain cancers are the main causes of the increase in the number of cancer cases.
As for the drop in the death rate from cancer, it is essentially linked to a drop in the incidence, in humans, of certain cancers linked to the consumption of alcohol and tobacco (cancers of the stomach, breast cancer). esophagus and upper digestive tract) and early diagnosis of cancers with a more favorable diagnosis (the Colon Cancer for example).
Cancer figures: the environmental role
The participants in this conference sought to better understand the links between the environment in the broad sense and cancers. If the role of certain environmental factors such as asbestos, tobacco smoke or HPV viruses is clearly established, the carcinogenic effects of other chemical or physical agents remain today suspected without however being proven. The identification of the risks incurred does indeed come up against certain obstacles: exposure to low doses which are difficult to quantify, very long latency periods between exposure and the onset of the disease, etc. Understanding the links between the agents present in the environment and cancer therefore remain difficult.
“In the current state of knowledge, the increase in the incidence of the most frequent cancers (breast, prostate, colorectal) remains partly unexplained” underlines ANSES in its press release on the conference. ANSES also recalled, on this occasion, that 17 cancer research projects are funded for more than 2 million euros, as part of its health and environment research programs.
