• Question: Why is cancer becoming more and more common?

    Asked by anon-253268 to Ellie on 11 May 2020.
    • Photo: Ellie Dunstone

      Ellie Dunstone answered on 11 May 2020:

      One reason is that your risk of cancer increases a lot as you get older, and more and more people are living into old age so there are more cancer cases for that reason. It is quite hard for scientists to tell whether the increase in cancer rate is entirely explained by this factor, or if there are other factors coming into play too. Some people have suggested things like pollution, or plastics as a reason for the increase, but as far as i know there isn’t actually any robust evidence for this.

Comments

  • Photo: Sophie

    Sophie commented on :

    Just adding to what Ellie has already said. Cancer also appears to have become more common because we’re now much better at detecting cancer earlier. We have various screening programmes now which can help detect cancer much sooner, and more people are taking part in these screening programmes, such as the cervical cancer screening programme offered to women over 25, bowel screening for the over 50s, and breast cancer screening for those at high risk and those aged over 50. Better detection means that more people are being treated earlier 🙂

  • Photo: anon-253268

    anon-253268 commented on :

    Thankyou!