Twenty thousand Lebanese women tested for breast cancer in 2017

An Nahar reported yesterday that some 10,000 women reacted positively to testing for breast cancer in 2016, pointing to an increase in the number which doubled to reach 20,000 women in 2017. In this respect, a report released recently by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)- WHO, indicated that cancer incidence rates in Lebanon were the highest among West Asian countries in relation to population size. The report pointed out that there are 242 cancer patients for every 100,000 persons, 17,294 new incidences during 2018, and some 8976 cancer mortalities. According to the WHO report, the rates of the new cancer cases were 8485 women against 8809 men and the number of mortalities during 2018 were 3983 female deaths against 4993 males. The number of cancer patients in five years stood at 41,843 persons, 22,250 of which were women and 19,593 were men, the report said. Globally, the report pointed to 18.1 million new incidences in 2018 and the death of 9.6 million people. In figures, the breast cancer posted the highest rate (18.6%) among the total new 3219 incidences, followed by bladder cancer (10.5% - 1820 cases), lung cancer (9.5% - 1641 cases), prostate cancer (8.7% - 1507cases) and colon cancer (8.5% - 1463 cases). For more info, kindly visit the link below: (https://bit.ly/2IcJlow). (Al Akhbar, An Nahar, September 25, 2018)