Globally, cancer is on the increase, with lung cancer the biggest cause of cancer deaths both in South Africa and abroad. An international study reported in the Journal of American Medicine Oncology used a new statistical methodology to work out cancer rates in 188 countries and measured the increases between 1990 and 2013.Internationally, the proportion of deaths due to cancer has increased from 12% in 1990 to 15% in 2013.The study found that developing countries with weak health systems were hard-hit by rising cancer rates.Lung cancer is the most likely to kill because it is more difficult to diagnose than breast or prostate cancer. It was found to be the biggest cancer killer in South Africa in 2013, with about5 000 deaths.The head of the Vitality Institute, Derek Yach, said the incidence of lung cancer would increase."The data [show] that lung cancer tops the cancer death numbers for the first time."The trend will worsen because more women have begun smoking and men are dying after decades of tobacco use."Though lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in South Africa, breast and cervical cancer are the biggest killers of women, and prostate cancer the biggest killer of men...