Each day, 36 people in Singapore are told that they have cancer,
marking a worrying rise in the country's top killer.
Cancer cases have jumped by about 17 per cent since 2010, despite
certain cancers being preventable if people choose healthier
lifestyles and drop bad habits.
Associate Professor Chng Wee Joo, director of the National
University Cancer Institute, said: "This trend remains a concern as
it means we have not been making much headway in the prevention of
cancers."
According to the latest figures released by the National Registry
of Diseases Office, 13,416 people were diagnosed last year with
cancer. The year before, the number was 12,651 and in 2010, it was
11,431.
The disease remains the top cause of death here, with around one in
three dying of it now.
One of the biggest increases was in breast cancer, the most common
cancer among women here. Cases rose from 7,481 in the five-year
period between 2005 and 2009, to 9,284 between 2010 and last
year.
Colorectal cancer, which has one of the highest mortality rates
among various cancers, also saw a rise in cases. There were 9,324
new cases between 2010 and last year, compared to 7,937 cases in
the previous five-year period.
According to Prof Chng, the rate at which cancer occurred in the
population in the last decade was "slightly higher than in
preceding decades".
Associate Professor Lim Soon Thye, head of the division of medical
oncology at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, said experts
estimate that four in 10 cases of cancer may be preventable.
This is if people adopt certain lifestyle habits, such as not
smoking, keeping a healthy body weight, sticking to a balanced diet
with regular exercise, cutting back on alcohol and going for
vaccinations.
The Health Promotion Board, which released the interim annual
report on trends in local cancer incidence recently, said forming
healthier habits takes time.
"Lifestyle and environmental factors will take time to change.
Hence, the type and order of top-ranked cancers in Singapore have
remained more or less the same over the years," said Dr Shyamala
Thilagaratnam, director of the regional health and community
outreach division at the board. "This trend is likely to continue
in the near future."
While the increase in cancer cases is partly due to a growing
population, the chances of people getting the disease have also
gone up, following a global trend.
An average of 328 women out of every 100,000 in the resident
population got cancer each year for the period from 2010 to last
year, compared with 265 from 2003 to 2007 - a 24 per cent rise.
Among men, it went up by a similar rate, from 255 out of every
100,000 to 316.
Prof Lim put this down to an ageing population. "Cancer rates
increase sharply with age. About 60 per cent of new cancer cases
diagnosed involve those aged 60 and above," he said.
Not all cancers can be avoided by living healthily.
People need to get themselves screened to catch diseases such as
breast, cervical and colorectal cancers in their early stages, when
treatments are simpler and more effective, said Dr
Thilagaratnam.
Prof Chng said creating greater public awareness and making it more
convenient for people to do this is important because current
screening programmes are seeing very low take-up rates.
ST