Cancer is a major public health problem with clear negative consequences for people diagnosed with the disease and for those around them.

In a recent statement at the World Cancer Congress 2022, researchers presented data on the number of children orphaned by their mother due to cancer. In particular, 4.4 million women died of cancer in 2020. 78% of these deaths were associated with women under the age of 50. The researchers used United Nations data on world population, as well as the average number of living children per woman in each country, and five-year female fertility rates in each country over the previous 18 years. Based on these figures, it has been estimated that around 1 million children worldwide are motherless due to death from cancer.

The majority of these deaths occurred in Asia (49%) and Africa (35%) and were most often associated with the breast (25% of cases), cervix (18%) and upper gastrointestinal tract (13%). In fact, there is an inverse relationship between the human development index and the number of maternal orphans per 100 women who die. In particular, Europe, with the highest Human Development Index, had the lowest number of orphans per cancer death among women.

This data is important because it reflects for the first time the scale of the problem, which can have serious consequences for children. As Michalis Liontos (Associate Professor), Flora Zagouri (Professor), Theodora Psaltopoulou (Professor) and Thanos Dimopoulos (Professor and Rector of EKPA) stated, from studies of orphans, it is known from studies of orphans that they are characterized in some cases with lower levels of education and higher mortality than their peers. It is clear that cancer research needs to be intensified in order to reduce the death rate from this disease. However, the data from this study show that it could also help the next generation, EKPA professors note.

In addition, they add, about half of female deaths were associated with preventable or early diagnosed diseases, such as breast and cervical cancer. Thus, such research raises public awareness of the intergenerational effects of cancer and highlights the need to reduce preventable cancer deaths.

Source: RES-IPE