Which cancers are likely to become more prevalent and how should this impact research? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Lung cancers are declining in the US as fewer people smoke cigarettes, but a recent look at cancer incidence worldwide finds that others are rising. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, looks at the domestic data.

Nelson: The ones that we have our eye on here in the US are cancers of the liver, cancers of the pancreas, they are definitely rising. Liver cancer rise in the US seems to be related to the obesity epidemic.  :13

Does this data indicate where we should be directing research? Not necessarily, Nelson says.

Nelson: Some of the ones for which the global disease burden is greater I’m not sure randomized clinical trials are the answer. So cervical cancer I’m not sure we need randomized clinical trials for advanced disease, we need to stop cervical cancer by vaccinating people against HPV. Liver cancer the global burden is caused by a virus that we need to vaccinate away.  :17

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.