多読教材

多読教材#15 Almost Half of Cancer Deaths Are Preventable(ガンによる死亡のほぼ半分は防ぐことができる:主原因トップ3)

代表Okadaがお送りする、ニュースサイトから英語学習にうってつけの記事を厳選していく、多読向け教材シリーズ。

The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Newsweek といったニュース系の記事を読むことをルーティン化している代表Okadaです。

今回も科学雑誌"Scientific American" のウェブ版より。#14よりも圧倒的に読みやすい素材ですので、高校生1〜2年生でもチャレンジできるでしょう。

Scientific American

アメリカ最古の一般向けの定期科学雑誌。1845年創刊という老舗中の老舗。様々なジャンルを扱うTIMEと異なり、科学系に強い。

使われる語彙レベルは、記事によってかなり差がありますが、高校生や大学生には「読みづら」と感じるかもしれません。ただし、高校1年くらいでも普通に読める記事も多くあり、大学入試の出典としてたびたび登場します。これから英語ニュースを読むことを習慣化したい、けれど科学系中心でいきたい、という方にオススメです(英検準1級に合格、TOEIC(LR)800のスコアの方であればやや難くらいの印象のものが多いでしょう。Writerによっては高1程度のレベルで読めるものを書く人も多いのですので、ある程度の記事量を確保したら、記事ではなくWriterで記事検索するというのも一つの手法ですね)。

Article (記事)

Almost Half of Cancer Deaths Are Preventable
-Data show that smoking, drinking alcohol and having a high body mass index are the biggest contributors to cancer worldwide

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/almost-half-of-cancer-deaths-are-preventable/

Number of Words

641 words

黙読3m12s 音読4m00 で読み切れればスピードリーディングスキル(速読力)十分。

Text:本文(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/almost-half-of-cancer-deaths-are-preventable/

Audio【WPM: 158 のスピード】

Almost Half of Cancer Deaths Are Preventable.

 

Data show that smoking, drinking alcohol and having a high body mass index are the biggest contributors to cancer worldwide.

Nearly 50% of cancer deaths worldwide are caused by preventable risk factors, such as smoking and drinking alcohol, according to the largest study of the link between cancer burden and risk factors.

Using estimates of cancer cases and deaths from more than 200 countries, researchers found that avoidable risk factors were responsible for nearly 4.5 million cancer deaths in 2019 (see ‘Global cancer deaths’). That represents more than 44% of global cancer deaths that year. Smoking, alcohol use and a high body-mass index (BMI) — which can be indicative of obesity — were the biggest contributors to cancer.

The findings, published in The Lancet on 20 August, largely confirm results from smaller studies and highlight how reducing exposure to risk factors could help to prevent a substantial proportion of cancers, says Rudolf Kaaks, a cancer epidemiologist at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg. The take-home message is simple: “Don’t smoke,” says Kaaks. “Don’t get overweight, and don’t drink too much alcohol.”

Heavy burden

The true number of cancer cases and deaths worldwide is hard to pin down, because some countries do not record such data, says study co-lead author Justin Lang, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Canada in Ottawa. To overcome this, Lang and his colleagues used data from a study looking at death and disability from more than 350 diseases and injuries in 204 countries. From those data, they estimated the impact of 34 risk factors on poor health and deaths from 23 types of cancer (see ‘Cancer deaths by tumour type’).

In 2019, half of all male deaths from cancer, and more than one-third in women, were due to preventable risk factors including tobacco and alcohol use, unhealthy diets, unsafe sex and workplace exposure to harmful products, such as asbestos. From 2010 to 2019, global cancer deaths caused by these risk factors increased by about 20%, with excess weight accounting for the largest percentage of increase — particularly in lower income nations.

“These results, in combination with local knowledge, may be useful for policymakers in determining what modifiable risk factors to target in cancer-control planning efforts,” says study co-author Kelly Compton, a project officer at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle.

Smoke-free policies, increased taxes on tobacco and advertising bans have proved effective in diminishing exposure to smoking, and similar efforts have been recommended to help reduce excess alcohol use, says co-senior author Lisa Force, who studies cancer burden and health metrics at the University of Washington.

Future research

The study did not include some other known risk factors for cancer, including exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and certain infections. Although the researchers used ‘unsafe sex’ as a proxy for cancer risks associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) and other sexually transmitted viruses. Cervical cancer, which is caused by certain strains of HPV, is the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in sub-Saharan Africa. There, Kaaks says, “a huge part of cancer incidence and mortality in women could be decreased by timely HPV vaccination”.

The team might include risk factors such as infections and exposure to UV radiation in future analyses, once more data — for example about levels of exposure to those factors — are available, says co-author Jonathan Kocarnik, who models global cancer burden at IHME.

Future work could help to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer cases and deaths. A 2020 study2 estimated that, by 2025, there will be more than 3,000 avoidable cancer deaths in England as a result of diagnostic delays because of COVID-19. In some areas, Kocarnik says, the pandemic might have changed people’s exposure to certain risk factors: for example, workplace exposure to harmful products might have decreased during lockdowns. However, he adds, “potential changes in risk-factor exposures and the impact on future cancer burden will likely take many years to comprehensively understand”.

Highlights(キーポイント)

●Lancetの最新研究結果によると、喫煙、飲酒、高いBMIが世界中でガンの主要因だと分かった

●その割合はほぼ50%に及ぶ。

●したがって、重要なことは「喫煙をしない」「飲酒をしすぎない」「肥満にならない」ことの3点。

●2019年の男性のガン死亡の半分、女性の3分の1の原因は、避けられる要因、例えば、タバコ、アルコール、健康によくない食事、危険な性交渉、職場でアスベストなどの有害な物質にさらされることだった。2010年〜2019年にかけて、これらを原因としたガン死亡が約20%増加したのだが、「肥満」がそのほとんどを占めていた。これは特に貧困国であてはまることだった。

●今回の研究では他の要因、例えば、紫外線の影響や何らかの感染症、といったものは含まれてない。今後こういったこを全体的に理解していくのには何年もかかるだろう。

My Opinion(私の意見)

タバコ、アルコールはガンの原因のトップ2というイメージを多くの方が抱いていると思います。今回の記事では、データ提示をしていない一部の国、例えば、貧困国のがん死亡率を違った角度から検証しているのが興味深かったです。特にそういった国を中心に、肥満がガンの原因となっていることが多い、そして、世界全体にも当てはまる現象のようです。「肥満」「タバコ」「アルコール」がガンの主原因TOP3だった、と分かった今、これらのリスクファクターをできるだけ避けていきたいものですね。

ちなみに、別記事ですが「過剰なアルコールは(外見も含めて)老化の早期化につながる」という最新研究結果も出ています。

-多読教材