A global study just published in the International Journal of Cancer on Wednesday forecasts that the death rates from rectal cancer will increase in Australia by almost 60 per cent in the next 16 years.

The study showed a prediction that America will see a 28 per cent jump and Ireland and Canada increases of 24 per cent in the same time frame.

The authors say that the underlying reasons for the rise in the high-income countries are “yet to be fully understood. Possible explanations are changes in the prevalence of risk factors such as increasing body weight and lower physical activity.”

The report concludes that the findings is “worrisome” and warrants further research.

For Australian readers, its encouraging that they predict Australia’s rates of colon cancer are expected to fall by around 50 per cent over the same period.

The researchers found that death rates for both colon and rectal cancer are expected to drop globally but due to population growth and ageing, the total number of deaths is expected to rise.

The numbers of deaths were predicted up to the year 2035 by taking a weighted average of the projected mortality rates and then applying the United Nations national population forecasts available for each country.

Author: Tony Adams