This year, 286,664 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed, 2.6% more than in 2023, with a majority of colorectal, breast and lung tumors, which is also consolidated as the third most common in women as its incidence has tripled. in the last 20 years due to tobacco.
These are the estimates that the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) and Redecan (Spanish Network of Cancer Registries) make in the report Cancer figures in Spain 2024 presented this Thursday, which predicts that in Spain, as in the entire Worldwide, cancer cases will progressively increase until reaching 341,000 in 2040.
At the same time, an increase in mortality is expected, which will go from 113,000 deaths in 2020 to more than 150,000 in 2040, as is survival, which has doubled in the last 40 years and will continue to rise, although slowly, thanks to the new treatments and greater implementation of screening, said the president of SEOM, César A. Rodríguez.
The causes that cancer has been on the rise for decades are several, starting with population growth and aging, pointed out the president of Redecan, Jaume Galceran; In fact, 5% appear in people under 45; 35% between 45 and 64 and 60% in those over 65, while children barely represent 0.5%.
Also risk factors, such as tobacco, alcohol, pollution, obesity or a sedentary lifestyle, and the generalization of screening programs for some tumors such as colorectal, breast, cervix or prostate, influence this increase.
In recent years, there has been a constant increase in breast tumors in women, colon tumors in men, and pancreatic, kidney, and thyroid cancers – in this case, probably due to overdiagnosis – and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas in both. sexes.
The most diagnosed in 2024 will continue to be those of the colon and rectum (44,294), breast (36,395), lung (32,768), prostate (30,316) and urinary bladder (22,097).
Far behind, non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas will be detected (10,706), tumors of the pancreas (9,986), kidney (9,208), malignant cutaneous melanoma (7,881), cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx (7,603), of the uterine body (7,305), stomach (6,868) and liver (6,856).
In men, those of the prostate (30,316) and colon and rectum (27,009) will predominate. Also lung (22,483) and urinary bladder (18,247), although “a clear decrease” can be seen in these due to the gradual abandonment of tobacco by men, although men continue to smoke more than women (20.2% smoke regularly). daily compared to 13.9% of women).
On the contrary, lung cancer, which 15 years ago “was not even in the top ten” in women, Galcerán continued, will be confirmed as the third most common in them; The incidence has tripled “alarmingly” since 2003 due to the smoking habit that began in the 1970s. First, will be those of the breast (36,395) and those of the colon and rectum (17,285).
However, cancers related to tobacco are still much higher in men; However, “it is very likely” that in women “they will continue to increase in the coming years.”
SEOM’s annual report points out that the five-year net survival of patients diagnosed between 2008-2013 was 55.3% in men and 61.7% in women, a difference that is explained by the different incidences that some and others of certain tumors, for example those of the lung, more common in them, and breast, almost exclusive to them and with a much better prognosis.
The higher the incidence, the higher the mortality: in 2022, 1,200 more people died from cancer than in 2021, a total of 121,341, almost a quarter of the total; This global increase was at the expense of the increase in female mortality, with 1,000 more deaths than a year before.
Cancer was the main cause of death in men (29%), ahead of cardiovascular diseases (24.4%) and respiratory diseases (10.2%), but not in women, in whom tumors took the lead. second place (20.4%) after cardiovascular diseases (27.9%).
The most lethal tumors continued to be those of the lung, colon, pancreas, breast and prostate; in their case, lung cancer, followed by colon, prostate, pancreas, liver and bile duct tumors and urinary bladder, while in them breast cancer was responsible for the highest mortality, followed by lung cancer. , colon and pancreas.
Despite this, mortality from cancer in Spain has fallen in recent decades, although not equally in all tumors or by sex, as the case of lung tumors demonstrates.
A third of these deaths, however, are due to preventable factors: the main one by far is tobacco, responsible for more than 90% of lung tumors and the causal agent of others such as those of the head and neck, urinary bladder, kidney , esophagus, pancreas, stomach, colon and rectum, among others.
When you drink alcohol in addition to smoking, the risk is multiplied by up to 30. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption.
Obesity, for its part, is the second risk factor responsible for the most cancers in the United States, and is associated with at least nine types. A sedentary lifestyle and inadequate diets (insufficient amounts of fruit and vegetables) also play a role, despite which the consumption of these foods has been reducing since 2017.
Although very far from the US, in Spain obesity affects 13.7% of adults and overweight 33.6%, although the figures for children, which reach 30%, are worrying.
