Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus, SANA-States around the globe observe the World Cancer Day each year on February 4 as health awareness is essential to avoid the disease , with increasing warnings by WHO experts about expectations that cancer will become more common in numbers reaching about 30 million new cases annually by 2040 as the world population grows.
In Syria, Ministry of Health continues to provide free treatment to patients despite the challenges of the current circumstances, mainly unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on the country and repercussions of the so-called “Caesar Act” which affected various areas of life, such as securing special medicines for patients with chronic diseases, including cancer, according to director of communicable and chronic diseases at the ministry, Dr. Jamal Khamis.
Dr. Khamis affirmed in a statement to SANA that according to the ministry’s statistics for the year 2020, 17,300 new cases were recorded at a rate of 90 new cases per hundred thousand of population, a number close to the numbers recorded in neighboring countries, adding that locally there is one death of cancer out of every six ones.
He added that the most common types of cancer among women is breast cancer, while lung cancer appears more common in men.
Dr. Khamis stressed the importance of early detection campaigns for breast, prostate and cervical cancers.
The World Health Organization said that third of cancer cases occurs as a result of bad habits like smoking, lack of physical activity, being overweight, and not eating fruits and vegetables.
Manar Salameh/ Mazen Eyon