Abstract—Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide in recent years. Up until 2020, new cancer cases reached approximately 19.3 million with 10 million deaths. New cases of colorectal cancer reached 1.93 million cases, lung cancer to 2.21 million cases and stomach cancer to 1.09 million cases, which are three of the most common types of cancer in 2020. In this review, with the aid of data from World Health Organization, colon, lung, and stomach cancers were discussed from an epidemiological point of view, addressing both epidemiological distribution and determinants in addition to a brief biological background. In colon cancer, Ras mutations and mutations in DNA repair genes such as MLH1, MSH2 are shown to be common. Obesity was shown to increase the risk of development of colon cancer by 30-70% as studies suggest. Therefore, prevalence of obesity in Europe, Australia and United States was suggested to be highly attributable to high incidence rates of colon cancer in these regions. Looking at lung cancer, several studies showed that mutations /aberrant expression of oncogenes like cyclin D1, KRAS, and c-MYC are commonly found to be involved. From epidemiological perspective, industrialized Asian countries were found to be affected the most by lung cancer, where smoking, air pollution and poor diet are the major risk factors. Regarding stomach cancer, excessive alcohol consumption, chronic inflammations in the inner lining of the stomach caused by different diseases as in chronic atrophic gastritis, and other factors were found to be major risk factors. Asia and Russia were shown to be the most affected by stomach cancer. Towards the end, the paper suggested a variety of measures to be taken to minimize the incidence rates of different types of cancer. Realistic restrictions on smoking and alcohol consumption were suggested to minimize their negative effects. Moreover, and most importantly, making healthy lifestyle accessible and affordable in underprivileged areas is strongly recommended to address the prevalence of cancer.

Index Terms—Oncology, cancer distribution data, risk factors, WHO statistics

Hanwen Mickle Ma is with Shanghai Shangde Experimental School, Shanghai, China.

Cite: Hanwen Mickle Ma, "Lessons Learned from the Epidemiology of Colorectal, Lung, and Stomach Cancer," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 93-106, 2022.

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