Cancer deaths increase in SA - The Citizen

Despite improvements in cancer research and healthcare over the past two decades, cancer deaths in South Africa have increased substantially since 1994, reveals a new report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR).

According to the report, the death rate for all cancers increased for men from 65.4/100 000 people in 1994 to 71.2/100 000 in 2013. For women, the increase was from 51.6/100 000 to 68.8/100 000. Prostate, intestinal, and colon cancers showed particularly sharp increases.

The data was contained in a broader report the IRR released about the public and private healthcare sectors in SA. But the increase could have more to do with the growing size of the population in the country, according to IRR research analyst Tawanda Makombo.

“Counterintuitively, the increases measured in the report would seem to corroborate other IRR research that living standards in South Africa are improving. The IRR has, for example, identified a significant increase in the size of the middle class over the past 20 years.”

A study published by medical journal Lancet in 2012, predicted SA could see an increase of 78% in the number of cancer cases by 2030. Then, South Africa was ranked 50th on the World Cancer Research Fund’s list of countries with the highest cancer prevalence rates.

According to Lancet, prostate cancer is the number one cancer diagnosed among South African men followed by lung, oesophagus, colon/rectum and bladder cancer. Among women, the most prevalent is breast cancer, followed by cervical, uterus, colorectal and oesophageal cancer.

The IRR report also found that the diabetes death rate in South Africa was significantly higher than that of countries such as Uganda, Botswana, and Nigeria.

“The asthma death rate is also higher than a significant cross-section of countries,” Makombo said. “The TB death rate, even that excluding HIV infection, is also very high.”
– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

https://citizen.co.za/lifestyle/1194607/cancer-deaths-increase-in-sa/