2016 Moon Shot for Cancer: Focus on Prevention

It is now 2016, and Americans hope for a brighter, healthier new year. Are Americans healthier today than they were last year or the year before? Will there be fewer people diagnosed with cancer? According to the American Cancer Society, it is projected that in 2016 there will be 1,685,210 new cancer cases and 595,690 deaths due to cancer. This is an increase over previous years. While it is true that the death rate for several cancers has decreased (due mostly to better screening and earlier diagnosis), it is also true that several cancers are on the rise, including cancers of the thyroid, liver, pancreas, kidney, small intestine, tongue and tonsil in both women and men. In women, the incidence of endometrial, vulvar and anal cancer is rising. In men, there is an increase in the incidence of melanoma, multiple myeloma, male breast cancer, testicular cancer and throat cancer. It is also alarming that cancer-incidence rates in children have increased steadily since 1975. Leukemia, and cancers of the brain and other nervous-system tumors are the most frequently occurring childhood malignancies. Cancer rates are strongly impacted by the rise in obesity. Unfortunately, obesity rates in America have increased over the past 10 years. Between 1999 and 2014, our nation's obesity rate rose 24 percent among children and adults. Now, more than one-third (79 million) adults in the United States are obese. Why is this a problem? The answer is that obesity increases the risk of several ty...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news