Cancer in over 65s predicted 'to explode {uk}

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19316754


By 2040, quarter of over 65s could be diagnosed with cancer.


Cancer will become a fact of life for many people over the age of 65, according to researchers and a cancer charity.

They say the number of elderly people who have been diagnosed with the disease will more than treble by 2040, with over one in four being affected.

In 2010, 1.3 million over 65s had cancer. The figure is predicted to reach 4.1m within 30 years.

Macmillan Cancer Support said it was a ticking time bomb for society.

[Warpy]

1. Cancer rates set to treble? And what, pray tell, is the mechanism?

People are living longer right now. Why should people aging at the same rate suddenly see a spike in cancer rates because they're living as long?

It sounds like Macmillan is looking for funding.

[flamingdem]

2. I think it's environmental factors

Breast cancer numbers have soared for example and those tissues are very sensitive.

Also living longer. Who knows what else, maybe things we just don't know yet.

Then there's nuke crap floating around that doesn't help.

[Warpy]

3. Radiation causes a perceptible spike in cancer cases

but it's dosage related and certainly doesn't account for a trebling. The spike in breast cancer rates is largely attributable to HRT and are now declining as the use of HRT declines.

Environmental factors are going to be balanced by lower smoking rates.

I think this person is sensing his own mortality and projecting it onto a large population and that is always a mistake. He has grossly overstated any increase in cancer cases to grab a headline.

[SheilaT]

4. It's also a simple fact that

many cancers take many, many years to happen. The longer an individual lives, the more likely the occurrence of a cancer in that individual. If we're no longer dying from TB or diphtheria or small pox or pneumonia or any of the other diseases that used to kill us off in great numbers, we have a good likelihood of living long enough. To get cancer.

We all die of something.