Funding for Cancer Research and Clinical Studies in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

While the majority of new cases of cancers occur in the developing world, cancer research funding is not commensurate with the challenge. The largest funders of cancer research are government institutions in developed countries. While some cancer charities are international in scope, most cancer advocacy and charity organizations also fall within national boundaries. Unlike the situation with infectious diseases, there is no Global Fund to Fight Cancer, and international efforts at coordinating funding are nascent.

Cancer research in developing countries cannot get off the ground without adequate funding to train researchers and equip them to carry out work in both laboratories and in the field.

This chapter addresses resources that can in anyway advance cancer research capacity in these countries: direct funding of investigators or institutions, funding for investigators in well-resourced countries but working on research benefiting developing countries or arrangements where investigators from developed and developing countries work together with joint funding.