Smoking and other risk factors cause almost half of cancer deaths, study finds

The Guardian

Smoking, drinking alcohol, being overweight and other known risk factors were responsible for nearly 4.45 million cancer deaths around the world in 2019, new research suggests. The new study is the first to estimate how a list of 34 risk factors contribute to cancer deaths and ill health globally, regionally and nationally, across age groups, for both sexes and over time.

Dr. Christopher Murray, Adjunct Professor of Global Health and Director of the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, is quoted.

New Scientific Study: No Safe Level of Alcohol

By IHME

A new scientific study concludes there is no safe level of drinking alcohol.

The study, published today in the international medical journal The Lancet, shows that in 2016, nearly 3 million deaths globally were attributed to alcohol use, including 12 percent of deaths in males between the ages of 15 and 49.

Hutch News: The Health Haves and Have Nots

By Diane Mapes

As with many studies, there was good news and bad news.

The good news:  Public health researchers from the University of Washington looked at cancer’s mortality rate county by county and found that overall, deaths from the disease dropped 20 percent during the last 35 years, falling from 240 deaths per 100,000 people in 1980 to 192 deaths per 100,000 people in 2014.

DCPN: Taxes and Vaccinations are Most Cost Effective Interventions against Cancer

SEATTLE, Washington – The latest Disease Control Priorities 3rd Edition (DCP3) volume on cancer, available today, gathers essential information on effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, feasibility and affordability of a range of interventions to provide evidence-based guidance to decision makers worldwide. It is available online now at www.dcp-3.org/cancer and through the World Bank’s Open Knowledge Repository.

NPR: Breast Cancer in the Developing World: Rising Rates, Shrouded in Silence

By Marc Silver

A woman finds a lump in her breast.

And for a long time, she doesn't tell anybody. Not her family. And not her doctor.

That happens all too often in low- and lower-middle-income countries, says Dr. Ben Anderson, a surgical oncologist who is the director of the Breast Health Global Initiative at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.