Experts spoke about the increased mortality from cancer among surgeons

Cancer-related deaths among surgeons are more than twice as high as among doctors of other specialties. This is stated in a Harvard Medical School study published in the journal Medical Press, which was reviewed by Izvestia on August 6.

The authors of the study analyzed data on mortality among men and women aged 25 to 74 years, comparing indicators for various professions, including surgeons, doctors of other specialties, lawyers, engineers, scientists and workers in other fields. Information about age, gender, cause of death, and occupation was used for the analysis. The calculations were carried out taking into account the standardization by age and gender, the mortality rates per 100,000 population and the ratios between the groups were determined.

The mortality rate among surgeons was 355.3 cases per 100,000, for other doctors — 228.4. Despite this, the mortality rate among surgeons remained lower than in the general group of other workers (632.5 per 100,000), and approached the level of representatives of highly qualified professions — 404.5 per 100,000.

It was also found that surgeons are more likely than other doctors to die in road accidents — 13.4 cases per 100,000 versus 3.4. Road accidents have become the fourth leading cause of death in this group. However, in absolute terms, mortality was lower than among other workers (13.4 versus 16.6). This is due to differences in the structure of causes of death: for example, respiratory diseases, which occupy the fourth place in the general group (27 per 100 thousand), were in the 14th position among surgeons (0.6 per 100 thousand).

The greatest difference was recorded in oncological diseases. The death rate from cancer was 193.2 cases per 100 thousand. surgeons versus 87.5 for other doctors. This is the only category in which surgeons outperformed even the general group of workers (162.0 per 100,000).

The authors pointed out that the level of knowledge and access to medical resources between surgeons and other doctors is comparable. However, an excess of 105.7 cancer deaths per 100,000 people suggests the influence of professional factors related to the work of surgeons.

Individual cancer vaccines will be tested in Russia. What you need to know

The report of the American Cancer Society, published on the PubMed Central portal, states that 2,041,910 new cancer cases and 618,120 deaths from cancer are predicted in 2025. The largest number of deaths in men is associated with lung cancer and colorectal cancer. In men, prostate cancer is added to them, and in women, breast cancer.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.