Cancer: France must know why it has higher exposure rates

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he good news is that cancer mortality rates have been steadily declining in France: With 136.8 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023, compared to 184.7 in 1990, the trend reflects significant advances in medical care. France is one of the European countries with the lowest cancer mortality rate, which is a testament to the effectiveness of our healthcare system, especially given that the number of cancer cases has surged. That is the bad news: France is now ranked among the countries with the highest cancer incidence rates worldwide, with the number of cases continuing to rise sharply.

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'Cancer is, at least in part, a political disease'

A study published in September in the journal The Lancet ranks France at the very top, with 389.4 cancer cases per 100,000 people. This first-place rank is alarming, all the more so because the reasons behind it are still largely unexplained.