This long latency period is one of the reasons it is difficult to determine what causes cancer in humans. Cancer is a very common disease. One in three people will be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their life. Eventually, cancer occurs in three out of every four families. In New York, nearly one in four deaths is due to cancer.
Cancer occurs at all ages, but most often in middle-aged and older people.
The number of people diagnosed with cancer has increased over the past 40 years. Most of this is due to the increase in the population and because people are living longer. The most common cancers diagnosed among men, besides skin, are prostate, lung and colon. Among women, they are cancers of the breast, lung and colon. Benign Tumor - An unusual growth of cells that is not cancer.