Expert on which cancers take most lives in Belarus

Deputy Director for Research at the Alexandrov National Cancer Centre, Sergei Krasny, told journalists that colorectal cancer causes mortality among Belarusians more often than other tumours

In 2023, about 17,000 cancer patients died, of which men died by a large margin due to prostate cancer, lung cancer and colorectal cancer (colon cancer), and women due to breast cancer, colorectal cancer and gynaecological tumours. Colorectal cancer was the leading cause of death among all patients.

“Colorectal cancer is due to nutrition. We eat few fruits and vegetables, potato being our main vegetable, brings minimum benefits and contains a lot of starch. We eat a lot of red meat and fast food. Another cause of colorectal cancer is a sedentary lifestyle,” noted Sergei Krasny.

Preventive colonoscopy with removal of polyps may become a solution. Although this procedure is not much popular among Belarusians, oncologists try to widely promote it. It helps prevent 80 per cent cases of colon cancer.