According to a new study, the number of cancer deaths worldwide is expected to increase by almost 75% over the next 25 years, despite advances in treatments and efforts to reduce risk factors.

This increase means that 18.6 million people are expected to die of cancer in 2050. According to a report published in the Lancet medical journal, new cancers are expected to increase by more than 60% during this period, reaching 30.5 million.

The growth and aging of the population is expected to lead to much of these increases, according to the study.

Currently, more than 40% of cancer deaths are associated with 44 “amendable” risk factors, such as smoking, unhealthy diet and high blood sugar, according to analysis.

Amending risk factors contributed to 46% of cancer deaths in men in 2023, mainly due to smoking, nutrition, alcohol, professional risks and air pollution, Euronews notes.

In women – for which 36% of cancer deaths were associated with amendable risks – the main factors were smoking, unsafe sexual intercourse, diet, obesity and high blood sugar.

“There are enormous opportunities for countries to target these risk factors, possibly preventing cancer cases and saving lives,” said Dr. Theo Vos, one of the authors of the study and researcher at the Ihme Institute of Health and IHME.

The exhibition covered 47 types of cancer in 204 countries and territories, watching cases and deaths from 1990 to 2023 and then displaying these data by 2050.

In 2023, 18.5 million new cases of cancer and 10.4 million deaths worldwide were recorded, numbers that have significantly increased compared to 1990. However, mortality rates have decreased, mainly due to the decline in deaths in the richest countries.

Increasing deaths from cancer are expected to hurt countries with lower incomes in the coming years. According to the analysis, these countries will represent more than half of the new cancer cases and two -thirds of deaths from today to 2050.

Meghnath Dhimal of the Nepal Research Council, which also participated in the study, described the increasing weight of cancer in these countries “imminent disaster”.

Researchers have called for improvement of access to faster and more accurate cancer diagnoses, quality therapy and supportive care, especially in countries with lower income.