Cancer Crisis in Developing Countries

The world is facing a cancer crisis. Cancer kills more people than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. It is second only to heart disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 7.6 million people died of cancer in 2005. 84 million people, most of them in poor countries, will die in the next ten years if action is not taken now.

More than one third of cancers can be prevented and another third are curable if detected early. But in many developing countries with over-burdened health systems, cancer is a low priority and there are few screening or prevention programmes. In low and middle income countries, about 70% of all cancer cases are diagnosed too late.

At least $1 billion will be needed in the next decade if the developing world is to address this crisis. But the donor community and most bilateral development agencies do not, as yet, consider cancer control a high priority. Without a radical change in thinking, low-income countries will see more and more people dying prematurely and needlessly from cancer, with devastating social and economic consequences.