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2023-03-21T00:00:00.000+08:00

How many people get cancer – age and other risk factors

How many people get cancer – age and other risk factors

5 minute read

Lots of people worry about themselves or a loved one getting cancer. It’s understandable because most of us will be affected by cancer at some point in our lives, whether it’s our own diagnosis or someone close to us.

Although the risk of cancer is frightening, these days we’re better equipped to face it than ever before. Today, we have advanced technology to help diagnose and treat cancer and a greater awareness of how to lower our risk.

Learn more about how common cancer is and what we can do to help reduce our risk. 

Lots of people worry about themselves or a loved one getting cancer. It’s understandable because most of us will be affected by cancer at some point in our lives, whether it’s our own diagnosis or someone close to us.

Although the risk of cancer is frightening, these days we’re better equipped to face it than ever before. Today, we have advanced technology to help diagnose and treat cancer and a greater awareness of how to lower our risk.

Learn more about how common cancer is and what we can do to help reduce our risk. 

How many people get cancer?

The most recent statistics from Cancer Research UK show that 1 in 2 people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lifetime. This is higher than previous estimates, which is mainly because the way they measured the risk of cancer was different.

The risk of getting cancer is increasing gradually. Surprisingly, the reason behind this is a positive one - it’s because we live longer. Overall, we live healthier lives today, thanks to better hygiene, diets, housing and medicine, and our life expectancy has increased by around 11 years since 1960.

All of this is good news, but it does mean that, unfortunately, more people will go on to develop age-related diseases like cancer. 

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If you’re worried about cancer or concerned about any possible cancer symptoms, visit our diagnostic clinics page or call us on the number below and book an appointment today. 

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What’s the link between age and cancer?

To understand why cancer increases with age, it’s helpful to know how cancer develops.  

In a healthy body, your cells gradually replace themselves by dividing in two. Cancer happens when this cell division gets out of control.

The abnormal cell growth is caused by damage to your DNA. Each time your cells reproduce, they have to copy their DNA. DNA acts as instructions that tell each cell how to behave and sometimes damaged DNA can cause mistakes in the cell instructions. This means cells no longer behave as they should, causing cancer cells to form.

Cancer cells replicate much faster, forming tumours or abnormal tissue. The longer you live, the more time there is for mistakes in your DNA to build up. Risk factors like smoking and UV-light exposure can speed up this process by increasing the damage.

Cancer is relatively rare in young people and children because there has been less time for mistakes to be made in the DNA and less exposure to risk factors. Half of all cancers are in people older than 70, though living a longer life doesn’t mean you will get cancer.

What is the risk of getting cancer?

It’s impossible to predict any one person’s risk of cancer, because it depends on lots of things, like your lifestyle, your genes and your age. However, we can look at overall trends to understand how common cancer is.

The table below shows how many people develop cancer at some point in their lifetime by type of cancer.

The lifetime risk of getting cancer by type and sex

Table adapted from Cancer Research UK.

Your age and gender affect your risk of cancer. For women, the rate of cancer increases by age steadily throughout their lives, whereas for men, the rate of cancer increases more steeply from around 60 years. Over a lifetime, this balances out so, for both men and women, 1 in 2 will get some form of cancer.

There isn’t much we can do about our age, sex, or genetics - but there are other risk factors for cancer that we have more control over. 

What are cancer risk factors?

Research shows  there are steps we can take to decrease our chances of getting cancer.

Risk factors are anything that increases the probability of developing cancer. Avoiding them can’t guarantee you a cancer-free life but it could help. There is strong evidence that the following things lower your risk of cancer.

Explore ways you can follow this advice and live a healthier life, or read on to understand why these factors affect your risk of cancer.

What can I do to protect myself from cancer?

Besides the other steps mentioned in this article, there are things you can do to reduce the risk of cancer. Knowing when, where and how to check for cancer means that you can get a timely diagnosis.

An early cancer diagnosis gives you more treatment options, which is why it’s important to keep an eye on things - especially as you get older. People of all ages with breasts should know how to check them for lumps and be invited for breast screening from 50-71 years of age. Similarly, there are important health checks for men over 50