Cancer Prevenpinon in the Developing World: Mission Impossible?

Abstract

Abstract Cancer is set to become the newest epidemic in the developing world. This fact is still largely unknown. The UICC, therefore, has been acting in order to inform policymakers, with the aim of pushing them to act in order to tackle this looming disaster. The implementation of a cancer control plan, encompassing prevention, screening and treatment in each country, should therefore become the declared goal of all health policymakers worldwide.

Today cancer kills more people worldwide than human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis (TB) and malaria combined (see Fig. 3. 1 ). This fact is largely unknown not only within the lay press but to some extent even in the scientific community. This might be one of the reasons' even while governments and international agencies give much attention to e.g. HIV and malaria-that cancer is seldom mentioned.

Neoplastic diseases are sometimes also thought to be a hallmark of the developed world, while on the contrary cancer is set to become the newest epidemic in the developing world.

Based on the most recently estimated incidence rates, the 11 million cancer cases diagnosed in 2002 will reach roughly 17 million in 2020 and 27 million by 2050 [1]. These estimates assume no change in the risk pattern of cancer incidence. As shown in Fig. 3. 2 , a yearly increase of 1% of the risk would add at least another million cases per year [2]. Close to twothirds of the cancer cases expected for 2050 will most probably occur in low-income countries: since the cure rate there is much lower than in the high-income countries, the difference in mortality will be even more pronounced. In fact, it has been predicted that already by 2020 almost two-thirds of cancer deaths will occur in developing countries, and this proportion could reach three-quarters around 2050 [3].