June 21, 2017.
According to the 9th edition of the annual report “Cancers in France” from the National Cancer Institute (INCa), lung cancer was the deadliest cancer in 2015, men and women alike.
The most frequent cancers are not the deadliest
Cancer continues to take its toll. In 2015, 384,442 new cases of cancer were diagnosed in France. Men were however more affected than women: 57.6% of new cancer cases and 55.6% of cancer deaths were in men that same year. The most common cancer in men is prostate cancer, in women it is breast cancer.
On the other hand, these two cancers are not the most deadly. Lung cancer has caused the most deaths in men : 13,752 deaths in 2015, compared to 8,350 deaths from prostate cancer and 7,633 deaths from colorectal cancer. In women, the two deadliest cancers are lung cancer and colorectal cancer. Breast cancer, however, killed 8,462 women in 2015.
Cancers that could be prevented
But the tragedy is that a large part of these cancers could be prevented. The National Cancer Institute indeed argues that 40% of cancers could be prevented if we changed our ways. If we avoided consuming too much meat, too much cold cuts or dairy products, for example, and replaced them with foods containing fiber, we could reduce our risk of developing cancer by 20 to 25%.
Other risk factors: tobacco and alcohol. According to this work, tobacco would be responsible for 45,000 cancer deaths in France in 2013. As for alcohol, it is responsible for nearly 15,000 deaths each year from cancer, or 9.5% of all cancer deaths. Remember that moderate alcohol consumption should not exceed 10 drinks per week. However, in France, an inhabitant over the age of 15 drinks an average of 2.6 glasses per day.
Read also: Breast cancer: the protective effect of the Mediterranean diet
Marine Rondot
