Malta placed 43rd in cancer incidence list

A league table issued by the World Cancer Research Fund places Malta 43rd in a league table on the incidence of cancer. The list features 50 countries, with Denmark at its head with the highest incidence of cancer in the world.

The table was compiled from World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates. It shows that every year about 326 people out of every 100,000 in Denmark develop cancer.

It is thought that part of the reason for Denmark having the highest rates may be because it has a good record of diagnosing the disease. But there are also high rates of smoking among Danish women and it also has high levels of alcohol consumption, which is another cancer risk factor.

There are 211 cancer cases in Malta per 100,000 people.

The league table shows that high-income countries generally have significantly higher cancer rates than lower income ones. For example, the only non-European countries in the top 20 are Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Israel, French Polynesia and Uruguay.

This is likely to be partly because high-income countries are better at diagnosing and recording new cases of cancer. But a large part of the reason is also that high-income countries tend to have higher levels of obesity and alcohol consumption, and lower levels of physical activity.

Professor Martin Wiseman, Medical and Scientific Adviser for WCRF, said: “We know that people in high-income countries are more likely to be overweight, to drink a lot of alcohol and to be inactive.

“There is strong scientific evidence that these factors increase risk of several common cancers and these figures show the effect of this. When you look at the list, it is clear that the countries that do worse for these factors tend to be nearer the top."

“Of course, not smoking will have an important effect beyond that, as will avoiding sunburn. So when you put all these factors together it is clear that many cases are being diagnosed every year that could have been prevented.

“But the bad news is that around the world, things are heading in the wrong direction. The general trend is for people to become more overweight, eat more high-energy foods and become less active.

“This is why we need to raise awareness about what people can do to reduce their cancer risk and as a society we need to make the kind of changes that make it easier for people to make these healthy choices.”

Malta is 24th out of 48 countries in the incidence of breast cancer. It is 37th in the list of 50 countries with the highest cancer rates in the world for women. Malta does not feature in the top 50 in cancer rates for men.