5 cancers may be more common among the less well off

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-07-10 04:00

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Japanese scientists say five common cancers -  lung, stomach, colorectal, liver, and breast - occur more often in communities with low employment rates or low incomes. They looked at cancer registry records from a prefecture south of Tokyo, Kanagawa, between 2000 and 2016, and cross-checked these with public databases of local land prices, neighborhood income, education level, and employment rate, to look for any links between socio-economic status and cancer. They found the strongest link between underemployment in women and deaths from liver cancer, although all the cancer types were more common in less wealthy neighbourhoods. The authors suggest focusing cancer care on lower-income neighbourhoods to help address the imbalance.