Cancer is leading cause of death in high-income countries

Cancer is now responsible for twice as many deaths as cardiovascular disease (CVD) in high income countries, according to a new report from the PURE study published in The Lancet.   CVD, however, still remains the leading cause of mortality among middle aged adults globally, accounting for 40% of all deaths. It was estimated that 55 million deaths occurred in the world in 2017, of which approximately 17·7 million were due to CVD. The PURE study is the only large prospective international cohort study that involves substantial data from a large number of high, middle and low income countries and employs standardised and