Under the World Cancer Day, held on February 4, Alejandro Mohar Betancourt, pathologist, epidemiologist and researcher in the Institute for Biomedical Research (IIBm) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the National Institute on Cancer Research (INCan) reported that 130,000 new cases of cancer and 90,000 deaths linked to this disease are recorded in Mexico each year, representing a serious public health problem for our country.
“Every year there are more patients receiving diagnosis of this disease and mortality is higher. Latest estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer [IARC] show that the number of cases in 2008 was about 12 million worldwide, with nearly nine million deaths,” said Mohar Betancourt, who is also a member of the UNAM’s Government Board.
IARC’s data also shows that more than 25 million people worldwide are prevalent cases and receive care for that condition.
In its latest World Cancer Report, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that two million new cases of cancer were reported in the world in 2012 and estimated that this will rise to 22 million annually over the next 20 years.
El cáncer es una condición genérica, de los cuales hay más de 200 tipos diferentes, y su factor de riesgo principal es el envejecimiento. “Todo el mundo quiere vivir más y esa condición pertenece al grupo de las enfermedades crónico-degenerativas, resultado del aumento de la esperanza de vida”, agregó Mohar Betancourt, quien dirigió el INCan durante una década (2003-2013).
“It is a chronic disease; each diagnosed patient is monitored for life. Hence, the importance of better understanding the causes, which types of cancer exist, how it can be prevented and detected, and how it can optimally be treated,” said Mohar
Cancer can become a chronic disease in some patients, with which they may live for many years, as in the case of diabetes or hypertension. But there are individuals who are not able to control the disease, becoming in terminal patients, he said.
Mohar said that five most common tumors depending on gender are: breast, cervical, ovarian, endometrial and gastrointestinal tract for females; and lung, prostate, testicular, gastrointestinal and non-Hodgkin lymphoma for males.
A central issue in Mexico and in many intermediate or low-income countries is late diagnosis. “It’s a public health emergency, because if we will have many cancer patients, a huge effort should be made to get an early attention,” he said.
Also, Mohar recognized that in most cases this factor directly affects life expectancy and quality of life. “The most important thing to address it is to detect it early; in fact, ideally, prevent it.”
The most important recommendation is not smoking, as it is one of the main causes. “There are 13 tumors associated with smoking and 30 percent of deaths are related to chronic consumption of tobacco,” he said.
Other factors that promote the development of cancer are infections, he said, such as the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection that can cause cervical cancer, for which there is already a vaccine that controls the virus during the early phase. Similarly, hepatitis B causes liver cancer, while chronic gastritis, caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, increases the chance of developing gastric cancer.
“More general factors are diet, lack of exercise, obesity, diabetes and hormone exposure; which we can change. While among non-modifiable aspects there is hereditary burden, affecting at five percent. So there is much more to do from public health prevention, education and information,” he said.
Currently, Mohar Betancourt studies some variants of HPV and the role of vaccination in the development of the tumor that causes cervical cancer. He also conducts a clinical-epidemiological study on breast cancer in women under 40, which seeks to know the clinical, genetic, histological, resistance to treatment, fertility, sexuality and psychosocial response profiles.
The researcher is also involved in the development of a Population Cancer Registry, which will evaluate the impact of treatment campaigns and early detection in the Mexican population, innovative and non-existent strategy in the country.
Source: DGCS UNAM
