Show Notes
It’s not something we like to dwell on too often, but the chance for each of us getting some kind of cancer during our lifetime is significant. After all, it's the second leading cause of death worldwide according to the World Health Organisation, just behind heart disease. Cancer Research UK puts the estimated lifetime risk of a man or woman getting cancer at nearly one in two.
Research has shown the extent to which cancer cases have been growing in recent decades. And not just among the elderly. A study published in BMJ Oncology in September 2023 showed that there had been a “striking” 79% increase in new early-onset cancer cases from 1990-2019. Early-onset is a term used to describe cancer in the under-50s.
Why is that then? Isn’t it normal for cancer deaths to increase as the global population grows? Is the situation the same everywhere in the world? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!
To listen to the latest episodes, click here:
What are the latest advances in lung cancer treatment?
Can men get breast cancer?
What is Quantum medicine and is it a scam?
A Bababam Originals podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance.
First broadcast : 2026-05-04 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Do you really know?
In some online communities, men are told that attractiveness depends on achieving an extremely muscular body, a square jaw and other supposedly “masculine” features.
Now if you’ve never heard the word fap before, let me spell it out to you. It’s basically an onomatopoeic slang term for male masturbation. According to Business Insider, the term first appeared in a web comic called Sexy Losers in 1999, to indicate the sound of a male character masturbating. An Urban Dictionary definition for the term was then added in 2002, and usage grew from the 2000s onwards.
According to the NHS, around 1 in 3 people in the UK are affected by insomnia, and it’s particularly common in older adults. Many people turn to medication like benzodiazepines in an attempt to address their insomnia.
Speculative science fiction really is a genre of its own. Some people love it, others find it pointless, but you can’t deny the mental gymnastics involved in imagining the future of our societies, especially when some of those predictions turn out to be right.
Seventy-four percent of 18 to 24-year-olds use AI every day, according to a February 2025 Ipsos study. No surprising really, chatbots now handle so much for us: emails, translations, studying, even creative projects. It almost makes you wonder how we ever managed before.