Cancer rates on the increase - Wales

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Cancer rates on the increase

Jun 6 2006

Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail
DOCTORS are diagnosing more patients who have already beaten cancer once
with the disease a second time.

Many of these patients in Wales are being told that they have a more
aggressive and invasive form of the disease the second time around.

It is thought that an increase in these secondary tumours could be part of
the reason why the number of people being diagnosed with cancer is
increasing annually in Wales.

Experts also believe that our unhealthy and sedentary lifestyles,
continuing high smoking rates and changes in reproductive patterns are
behind the rise in cancer cases.

More than 16,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2004, up by 1,500 on
figures for 2000, according to the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and
Surveillance Unit.

This includes a sharp rise in the number of men diagnosed with skin and
prostate cancer, a 13% rise in the number of women diagnosed with lung
cancer in Wales, and an 8% jump in cases of breast cancer in Wales.

Although the past decade has seen huge advances in drug therapy to treat
cancer, which, in turn has boosted five-year survival rates, doctors are
now starting to see previous patients re-diagnosed with a more aggressive
form of the disease.

Dr Richard Walker, chief executive of Welsh cancer charity Tenovus, said,
"We have had some substantial successes in treating cancer patients and
they are surviving longer.

"We are now seeing people who have had a good disease-free period
developing another cancer, which is more aggressive.

"We think this may be linked to the fact that cancer cells, like other
cells in the body, have an innate ability to survive. We know that cancer
cells can become resistant to Tamoxifen [a breast cancer drug] and other
drugs and they come back more aggressive and invasive.

"We are now working on developing new treatment regimes to try to reduce
the ability of cancer cells to survive."

Some of the increases in the number of patients diagnosed with cancer
every year in Wales are related to improved screening methods which are
detecting tumours earlier, when they are smaller and more likely to
respond to treatment.

Experts believe at least part of the 39% rise in prostate cancer is due to
the availability of the PSA test, and they expect to see similar rises in
the number of bowel cancers diagnosed when screening becomes available.

Dr Colin Smith, a statistical information manager for Cancer Research UK,
said that the 8% increase in breast cancer cases in Wales in 2004 was
typical of a rising trend across the UK.

He said, "It is partly due to the fact that the screening programmes are
picking up more cancers and partly due to awareness of the disease.

"But there is also a whole range of reproductive factors which boil down
to exposure to oestrogen and account for the increases.

"The age of a girl's first period is falling, which means that if the
average age of the menopause stays the same, women are exposed to more
oestrogen during their lives.

"The later a woman has her first child, the risk increases; fewer children
also increases the risk as the more full-term pregnancies a woman has
offers her greater protection.

"We also know that breastfeeding reduces the risk compared to women who
don't breastfeed, and that protection improves the longer they
breastfeed."

A spokesman for the Welsh Assembly Government said, "Tackling cancer is
one of the Assembly Government's top health priorities.

"A cornerstone of our policy on cancer is to reduce the incidence of this
disease in Wales and this is being taken forward through a number of
primary prevention strategies and initiatives focusing on the dangers of
smoking and the importance of a healthy diet and plenty of exercise.

"Other key components of our policy are, where cancer does occur, to
ensure it is detected as early as possible, and that there is improved
access to the highest quality of treatment and care so that a patient with
cancer has the best possible chance of survival."

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