巴黎高峰会呼吁打破对癌症的忌讳

    专家指出：打破对癌症的忌讳，勇于谈论病情和寻求治疗，并将它提升到一个高度，有助于对抗癌症日益严重的趋势。

    卫生工作者在峰会上指出，宣传教育是最有效的办法，可以用来消除癌症的污名，不再使美国和欧洲的众多癌症患者因为害怕受歧视而羞于承认自己的病情。致力于帮助美国癌症患者的美国全国乳癌联合机构主席弗朗西斯·威斯可认为，现在一些国家对癌症仍然讳莫如深，改变这种状况可以挽救生命。癌症是应该拿出来讨论的。

    此次会议是在巴黎的联合国教科文组织总部召开的，目的是为了加强癌症研究方面的合作，并提高整个社会对癌症的认识。与会代表希望能够加强去年2月在首次高峰会上产生的《巴黎抗癌宪章》的执行。希望能在癌症研究上注入更多的资金，并能更好地医治病人。

    世界卫生组织预测，到2020年，每年新增癌症病例将由现在的900万上升到2000万，死亡人数将由500万上升到超过1000万。肺癌是其中最常见及致死率最高的癌症，每年有约92万人死于该病。

    专家指出，采用严厉的法律来限制烟草广告、提高香烟价格，可以减少吸烟，控制烟草相关性的疾病和死亡，挽救众多的生命。估计有30%的癌症死亡是由吸烟引起的。

    Paris Summit Says Cancer Stigma Must Be Broken
    PARIS (Reuters) - Taboos that forbid cancer sufferers from speaking of their illness and seeking treatment must be lifted to help fight a rising tide of the killer disease, experts told a global cancer summit in Paris Friday.

    ``In some countries there is a conspiracy of silence about cancer that we must break, we will save lives if we can do that,‘‘ said Frances Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer (news - web sites) Coalition that helps sufferers in the United States.

    ``Cancer is something that must be discussed, we must get it out in the open,‘‘ she told reporters.

    Speaking at a one-day world summit, health workers said education was the key to wiping away the stigma of a disease that many sufferers in the United States and Europe were afraid to admit they had for fear of discrimination.

    The summit, held at the headquarters of the United Nations (news - web sites) Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, aims to encourage cooperation on cancer research and raise awareness of the disease around the world.

    Delegates hoped to encourage the implementation of a ‘‘Charter of Paris against Cancer‘‘ produced at an initial summit held in February last year, urging more research funding and better treatment for patients.

    The World Health Organization (news - web sites) predicts that the number of new cancer cases reported each year will rise to 20 million by 2020 from nine million now, while the number of deaths will rise above 10 million from five million. Lung cancer is the most common and deadly cancer, causing 921,000 deaths every year.

    Experts said tougher laws to limit tobacco advertising and raise cigarette prices would save lives by discouraging the smoking that causes an estimated 30 percent of cancer deaths.

    ``We can turn off the taps of tobacco-related death and disease with political will,‘‘ said Derek Yach, general director of non-transmittable diseases and mental health at the World Health Organization.