Cancer has become the leading cause of death in rich nations, overtaking heart disease, according to the results of two landmark, decade-long global surveys of health trends released Tuesday.
“The world is witnessing a new epidemiologic transition among the different categories of non-communicable diseases, with cardiovascular disease no longer the leading cause of death in high-income countries,” said Gilles Deganais, emeritus professor at Laval University, in Quebec.He said his team’s study showed that cancer was the second most common cause of death globally in 2017, accounting for just over a quarter of all deaths.
It conversely found that non-infectious diseases such as cancer and pneumonia were less common in low-income states than in richer ones.