Cancer overtakes heart diseases, becomes leading cause of deaths in high-income countries

Cancer surpassed cardiovascular diseases as the leading cause of death among middle-age adults in several countries, researchers said on Tuesday.

Publishing the findings of two large studies in The Lancet medical journal, the scientists said they showed evidence of a new global "epidemiologic transition" between different types of chronic disease.

Among middle-age adults, cardiovascular disease still remains, the leading cause of deaths globally - accounting for 40% of all deaths. But this is no longer the case in high-income countries, where cancer now kills twice as many people as heart disease, the findings showed.

"Our report found cancer to be the second most common cause of death globally in 2017, accounting for 26% of all deaths. But as (heart disease) rates continue to fall, cancer could likely become the leading cause of death worldwide, within just a few decades," said Gilles Dagenais, a professor at Quebec's Laval University in Canada who co-led the work.

Of an estimated 55 million deaths in the world in 2017, the researchers said, around 17.7 million were due to cardiovascular disease - a group of conditions that includes heart failure, angina, heart attack and stroke.

Around 70% of all cardiovascular cases and deaths are due to modifiable risks such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diet, smoking and other lifestyle factors.

The countries include Sweden, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Poland and Turkey.

The study is the largest of its kind analyzing causes of death across five continents, said Dr. Salim Yusuf, distinguished professor and executive director at the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada, who was senior author of the study.