A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) says Cambodia is among the top 10 countries worldwide for per capita occurrence of liver cancer, according to media reports.
According to the report by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Mongolia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and China all fall within the top 10 for liver cancer, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper. The occurrence could be due to high regional rates of hepatitis B, which can lead to liver cancer.
The report also revealed that worldwide there were 14.1 million new cases of cancer in 2012, but within 20 years, the number of new cases per year will rise to 25 million, the Guardian newspaper also reported.
Developing countries such as Cambodia are expected to struggle most with the increased burden of cancer cases, the WHO report says.
“The rising burden of cancer and other non-communicable diseases places an enormous strain on the health care systems of developing countries,” the report states, noting that an increase in tobacco use, consumption of alcohol and highly processed foods, as well as lack of physical activity, are compounding the problem.
This dramatic surge in new cancer cases will mean that despite exciting advances in medical science, treatment alone will not be enough to tackle the cancer problem, and treatment must be aided by improving prevention and early detection, Dr. Christopher Wild, director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, was quoted as saying.
