Episode 79: Cancer rates

Episode 79: Cancer rates

Author: Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie July 22, 2025 Duration: 52:11
Science Fictions
ScienceTechnology

Are cancer rates going up or down? It seems like depending on where you look, you’ll find different answers to the question. What’s going on here — have some writers just got it completely wrong? Is it something to do with different types of cancer? Are we being confused by some kind of weird statistical artefact? All of the above? In this episode of The Studies Show, we do our very best to find out.

The Studies Show is brought to you by Works in Progress magazine, the ultimate place online to read about new and underrated scientific and technological ideas that could make the world a better place. You can find a huge range of essays online, for free, at www.worksinprogress.co.

Show notes

* BBC Future article on early-onset cancer rates

* BMJ Oncology article on global cancer incidence increasing by 79%

* And its online supplementary information

* July 2025 Economist article on how the world is winning the war on cancer

* Saloni Dattani’s 2025 article on the decline in global cancer rates

* The GLOBOCAN data update from the IARC, 2002 and 2008

* Our World in Data’s graph on global cancer incidence over time

* Their graph on smoking rates and lung cancer deaths

* Their graph on stomach cancer death rates

* New RCT on vaping and smoking cessation

* A 90% drop in cervical cancer rates in England

* The hepatitis B vaccine and a massive drop in liver cancer incidence in China

* On H. pylorii, ulcers, and cancer

* 2000 JAMA article questioning the utility of the 5-year survival rate statistic

* 2014 PLOS ONE article that’s more positive about the statistic

* Tom’s BuzzFeed News article on oncology

* RCT of herceptin on breast cancer survival

* Study on rates of colorectal cancer

* And the same, in relation to BMI

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.



This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.com/subscribe

Every week, Tom Chivers and Stuart Ritchie pull apart the biggest arguments and most confusing claims making headlines. Science Fictions isn't just about celebrating breakthroughs; it's a necessary dive into the messy, contested, and often surprising realities of how science actually works. You'll hear them unpack heated debates, examine questionable studies, and explore why even solid research can sometimes lead to public confusion. This podcast serves as a guide through the noise, separating compelling evidence from overblown narratives. Each episode feels like a conversation with two deeply informed friends who aren't afraid to ask tough questions, offering clarity on topics that matter. For anyone curious about the stories behind the science headlines, this is an essential listen. Tune in for thoughtful analysis that goes beyond the press release, grounded in a genuine fascination with how we know what we know.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Official website RSS
spotify
Science Fictions
Podcast Episodes
Episode 44: Asteroids [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:18
Last week’s episode covered a man-made existential risk to humanity—nuclear war. But what about natural risks? Could there, right now, be a vast asteroid sailing through space that’ll collide with Earth, sending us go th…
Episode 43: Nuclear winter [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:45
The UK has a new Prime Minister, and one of his first acts will have been to write letters to the captains of our nuclear missile submarines, telling them what to do in the event that the UK gets obliterated by a nuclear…
Episode 42: Election special [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:48
This week it’s the UK General Election, and lots of other countries either have elections coming soon or have recently voted. Lots of pollsters and political scientists have been attempting to predict the outcomes - but…
Paid-only Episode 9: Viagra [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:32
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.comThere’s one thing we know Viagra does very well. But what other uses does it have? Can it, as has now been claimed in three sep…
Episode 41: Criminal justice and forensic science [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:35
The criminal justice system and science are both broadly looking for the same thing - the truth. But in many cases the two don’t mix well. Whether it’s court cases that attempt to decide the truth of a scientific dispute…
Episode 40: Addiction [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:21
To be addicted to something, you’ve got to… er, actually, what does it mean to be “addicted” to something? We all agree you can be addicted to heroin, but can you also be addicted to videogames, or sex, or listening to p…
Episode 39: Peanut allergy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:45
Should you avoid giving your child peanuts to ensure they don’t develop an allergy? If you’d asked medical authorities this question in the late 90s and early 2000s, you’d get an answer that’s completely opposite to what…
Episode 38: Lead and crime [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:13
Many Western countries, most notably the US, had a major decline in their crime rate in the 1990s. About 20 years earlier, the US had banned the use of lead in gasoline. Perhaps you wouldn’t think those two facts are rel…
Paid-only Episode 8: The science of Johann Hari [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:36
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit sciencefictionspod.substack.comJohann Hari is a journalist with an interesting past who has now written four very popular books on scientific topics (addictio…
Episode 37: Lead and IQ [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:51
Petrol, pipes, paint: they made a whole generation duller. That’s if you believe the research on the effects of lead on IQ. By interfering with neurological development, the lead that we used to encounter routinely has l…

«1...5678910»