Worldwide, the number of cancer cases will rise as people live longer, the population grows, and risk factors such as environmental pollution continue to have an impact, according to euronews.
However, according to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO), the burden of disease will be significantly higher in some countries than in others. The largest increases are expected in the African Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region—125.2% and 109.8%, respectively. Due to persistent inequalities, the greatest burden of cancer is expected to fall on low- and lower-middle-income countries.
The reason, according to experts, is that the global cancer landscape is characterized by “profound inequality.”
According to WHO estimates, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer and childhood cancers exceeds 85% in high-income countries, but falls below 45% in low-income countries.
A serious global shortage of access to cancer diagnostics undermines the ability to detect cancer early and accurately stage the disease, which, in turn, hinders the provision of appropriate treatment. As a result, in many countries, late diagnosis remains the norm even for cancers that can be detected at an early stage, the report notes.
The Cause: Inequality
Significant inequities in cancer care exist both between and within countries; it is linked to educational attainment, whether one lives in an urban or rural area, ethnicity, gender, as well as factors such as disability, indigenous status, and immigrant or internally displaced person status.
“Whether a person survives cancer should never depend on where they were born or how much they earn,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The inequities documented in this report are not inevitable; they are the result of policy choices, and the situation can be changed through more decisive and coordinated action,” he added.
At the same time, the WHO warns that although political commitment to the fight against cancer has strengthened in recent years, it is clearly not enough—change is happening too slowly.
