An Overview of the Evidence on Environmental and Occupational Determinants of Cancer

Cancer is the second most common cause of death worldwide after cardiovascular diseases [2, 3]. Globally, there were reported 12.7 million new cases of cancer in 2008 (6,639,000 in men and 6,038,000 in women) and 7.6 million deaths due to cancer (4,225,000 in men and 3,345,000 in women) [4, 5]. Cancer is not a modern disease, but as cancer risk increases steeply with age, it is more common nowadays due to increasing life expectancy. It has been estimated that the incidence of cancer will double between 2000 and 2020 and nearly triple by 2030 [6]. Until recently, cancer was considered a disease of westernized, industrialized countries, however, in 2008, 56% of new cases (7.1 millions) and 63% of all cancer deaths (4.8 millions) were reported by lowand middle-income countries [4]; this figure is predicted to increase due to a rise in life expectancy of the populations in lowand middle-income countries and due to their large overall population size.