VOA慢速英语--癌症是富裕国家的主要死因

Cancer Is the Leading Cause of Death in Wealthy Countries

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

Cancer is now the leading cause of death in wealthy countries. Researchers say cancer has replaced heart disease as the top killer¹ in the industrial world.

If the trend continues, they predict cancer could become the leading cause of death worldwide later in this century.

However, the news is not that cancer deaths are increasing but that deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) are decreasing.

Cardiovascular disease, or CVD, is a group of medical conditions that include heart failure, heart attack and stroke. It remains² the leading cause of death among middle-aged³ adults worldwide.

But when you only look at deaths in industrial economies – that is not the case. In those countries, the new report shows that cancer now kills two times as many people as cardiovascular disease.

The findings were published in The Lancet and presented at the recent European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris.

The research comes from a large, ongoing⁴ study called the Prospective⁵ Urban Rural Epidemiology or PURE. It is a project of the Population Health Research Institute of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Canada.

The PURE researchers have been collecting information about people from over 20 high-, middle- and low-income countries. The data includes a person’s medical history and individual behavior, such as physical activity and diet.

Salim Yusuf is a researcher on the PURE study and a professor of Medicine at McMaster University. He also serves as head of the Population Health Research Institute.

Yusuf explained the study’s findings in a statement to the press.

“The fact that cancer deaths are now twice as frequent as CVD deaths in high-income countries,” Yusuf said, "shows a change in the main cause of death in middle-aged people." He added that "as CVD declines in many countries because of prevention and treatment, cancer mortality will likely become the leading cause of death globally in the future.”

Most recent paper on the PURE study

Data from the PURE study has been used in several reports over the years. For this most recent report, the researchers followed more than 162,500 adults for 9 ? years. All of these men and women were between 35 and 70 years old. The subjects came from 21 countries.

Gilles Dagenais helped to prepare the report. He is a professor at Laval University in Quebec, Canada.

Speaking on a Canadian radio show, Dagenais explained that the world is experiencing a “transition” in disease trends. The main reason, he added, is the fact that cardiovascular disease rates have gone down in high-income countries.

Dagenais noted⁶ that there is no increase in cancer rates. If anything, he said, there is a decrease. However, over the past 20 years, there has been a sharp decrease in cardiovascular disease. He said the two main reasons are developments in medicine and technology, and changes in personal behavior.

One lifestyle change, he said, is that fewer people in high-income countries are smoking cigarettes. But he warned that more people in these areas are becoming overweight. He says researchers do not know how rising obesity⁷ rates will affect deaths from cardiovascular disease in the future.

Both Dagenais and Yusuf add that higher heart-disease death rates in low-income countries could be mainly the result of lower quality healthcare.

In recent years, several factors have greatly lowered the rate of heart disease in high-income countries. They include better treatment for heart disease and better medicines for blood pressure.

And that’s the Health & Lifestyle report, I’m Anna Matteo.

Words in This Story

trend – n. a general direction of change : a way of behaving, proceeding⁸, etc., that is developing and becoming more common

prospective – adj. likely to be or become something specified⁹ in the future

urban – adj. of, relating to, or being a city

rural – adj. relating to the country, country people or life, or agriculture

epidemiology – n. a branch of medical science that deals with the incidence, distribution, and control of disease in a population

income – n. a gain usually in money that comes in from labor¹⁰, business, or property

data – n. acts or information used usually to calculate, analyze¹¹, or plan something

mortality – n. the number of deaths that occur in a particular time or place

transition – n. a change from one state or condition to another

factor – n. something that helps produce or influence a result : one of the things that cause something to happen

1 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

4 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

5 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

8 proceeding   

n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报

参考例句：

• This train is now proceeding from Paris to London.这次列车从巴黎开往伦敦。
• The work is proceeding briskly.工作很有生气地进展着。

9 specified   

adj.特定的

参考例句：

• The architect specified oak for the wood trim. 那位建筑师指定用橡木做木饰条。
• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。