decade will unquestionably have raised concerns within the community.

The fact that there were 219 cancer cases registered in 1990 and 305 cancer cases in 1999 indicates that cancer is on the rise, even if heart-related diseases are the Country's number one killer.

Nonetheless, the age-old axiom that there are lies, damned lies and statistics should always be borne in mind with regard to these kinds of stories.

There will be discussion that living near overhead cables and telecommunications towers, eating foods containing carcinogens and so on have contributed to the increase.

That may be so, but there are a number of more mundane reasons for the increase as well.

Some of these were pointed out by Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann and oncologist Dr. Sidney Lowry, from the world-renowned Lahey Clinic.

Early detection, hereditary factors and the movement of baby boomers into the age where cancer is most likely to strike may all have contributed to the rise.

Medicine has also made major advances in other areas while health standards have improved, meaning that life expectancy has dramatically increased. People today rarely die of smallpox, consumption, tuberculosis, yellow fever and some of the other diseases and viruses which once cut a swathe through populations.

As callous as it may seem, people have to die of something and the eradication of these diseases and improvements in the ability of physicians to identify specific cancers early enough to treat them are among the reasons for this rise.

Scientific advances in cancer detection, public awareness campaigns like the excellent TV advertisements on prostate cancer and the survey now being launched to identify families with a genetic predisposition towards cancer could lead to a higher rate of cancer detection in the short term.

That is not a bad thing in and of itself; cures and better treatment for cancer are being found and early detection increases the chances of survival.

At the same time, there is evidence that healthier lifestyles and eating habits reduce the risk of getting cancer at all. The same applies to heart disease.

People worried about the rise in incidence of cancer and heart disease can do something about it themselves by adopting healthier and more active lifestyles, eating better, stopping smoking and reducing their alcohol intake and taking better care of themselves.

In the meantime, cancer research and treatment continues with some marked successes. People concerned about the increase in registered cases could help those people survive by contributing to the cancer research and local cancer assistance groups.