World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 632: Cancer Statistics

By G. B. Hill

Book Id: WPLBN0000164710
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 2.0 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 632: Cancer Statistics
Author:	G. B. Hill
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Health., Public health, Wellness programs
Collections:	Medical Library Collection, World Health Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	World Health Organization


Citation APA MLA Chicago Hill, G. B. (n.d.). World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 632. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Medical Reference Publication

Excerpt
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Cancer as a global problem Out of an estimated total of 50 million deaths annually in the world, more than 5 million are attributed to cancer (2). In Europe and North America, under present mortality conditions, about one-fifth of the population will die of cancer (3). Until recently, the mortality from cancer was numerically serious relative to the mortality from infectious and nutritional diseases only in developed countries. However, with increasing control of the latter diseases, cancer is rapidly becoming a major cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world. More than half the world's population now lives in countries where cancer is among the top ranking causes of death. There can be no doubt that cancer will be a major challenge in the years ahead. A rough WHO estimate, based on expected demographic and health status trends, suggests that by the year 2000 (i.e., within less than a quarter of a century) the number of cancer deaths may rise by more than 50% to approximately 8 million annually. This prediction is based on three trends. (1) Changes in the health spectrum and demographic structure of the population. With successful efforts in developing countries to reduce the number of premature deaths, life expectancy at birth will continue to increase, as will the proportion of a birth cohort surviving to ages in which cancer risks are high. Declining mortality, accompanied in many countries by decreasing fertility, can be expected to work towards a rise in the population in the high-risk age-group, in absolute as well as in relative terms.

Table of Contents
CONTENTS Page 1 . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.1 Cancer as a global problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.2 Past activities of WHO in cancer statistics . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3 Availability of data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 2 . Strategies for the development of comprehensive cancer statistics . . . . 13 2.1 Scope and objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.2 Users of cancer statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3 . Statistics of cancer cases in the population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.1 Some problems in the collection and analysis of data on cancer cases 16 3.2 Morbidity data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.3 Mortality data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4 . Statistics relating to prevention and early detection . . . . . . . . . . . 23 5 . Statistics of patient care and survival experience . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 5.1 Clinical trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 5.2 Assessment of clinical efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 5.3 Planning and evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 5.4 Comparability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 6 . Statistics of health service resources in relation to cancer . . . . . . . 27 7 . Statistics relating to environmental carcinogenic hazards . . . . . . . . 29 7.1 Methods of determining environmental hazards . . . . . . . . . . 29 7.2 Data elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 8 . Projections of cancer frequency and resource requirements . . . . . . . 31 9 . Estimating the social and economic implications of cancer . . . . . . . 33 10 . Integration of statistical information derived from different sources . . . 35 10.1 Census data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 10.2 Health service data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 10.3 Environmental data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 10.4 Legal aspects of data collection and utilization . . . . . . . . . . 37 11 . Training of personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 12 . Priorities for further development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 13 . Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 14 . Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42