France: chances of surviving after cancer improve
In France, cancer continues to kill on a large scale: 157,000 people succumb to the disease each year.
And there are 380,000 new cases per year.
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In France, cancer continues to kill on a large scale: 157,000 people succumb to the disease each year.
And there are 380,000 new cases per year.
However, the chances of surviving after cancer are improving, according to a large study conducted in metropolitan France and published by the National Cancer Institute.
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Earlier diagnoses, therapeutic progress, the effects are there: the probability of being alive 5 years after a cancer diagnosis increased between 1990 and 2015. However, the prognosis remains very dependent on the location of the tumor.
Patients with prostate or breast cancer have an average 9 in 10 chance of being alive five years after being diagnosed;
this rate is around 20% for lung cancer.
Another lesson from the study: for certain tumors, such as those of the mouth, stomach and lungs, women have a better prognosis than men. Gaëlle Coureau, who coordinated this work of the study, explains why: “
The hypothesis here would be awareness of screening and prevention which would be higher among women; differences in exposure to risk factors which would in fact lead to differences in etiology, that is to say in the causes possibly of cancer, and therefore in subtypes which would have different prognoses
;
with perhaps an exposure to alcohol and tobacco which would be higher in men and which lead to cancers with less good prognosis,
especially for cancers of the lips, mouth and pharynx.
The same for these same cancers, the more frequent risk factors which are papillomaviruses in women lead to cancers with better prognosis.
"
The authors of
the study
insist: cancers associated with alcohol and tobacco, such as those of the lung, esophagus and liver, continue to have a poor prognosis.
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To read also:
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