Cancer to lead death toll in 2010?

Despite the fact that cancer incidence and death rates for men and women in the developed world continue to decline, cancer is projected to become the leading cause of death worldwide in the year 2010, and low- and middle-income countries will feel the impact of higher cancer incidence and death rates more sharply than industrialised countries.

To coincide with the International Agency for Research on Cancer releasing the new edition of the World Cancer Report, in the US, the nation's leading cancer organisations joined forces at an event called Conquering Cancer: A Global Effort, to focus attention on the growing global cancer burden and discuss efforts needed to address the problem. The American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure discussed how each organisation is addressing the global cancer problem and together issued a call to action for the incoming US presidential administration and Congress.

According to the report, the burden of cancer doubled globally between 1975 and 2000. It is estimated that it will double again by 2020 and nearly triple by 2030. This translates to far greater numbers of people living with and dying from the disease. The report estimates that there were some 12 million new cancer diagnoses worldwide in 2008, and more than 7 million people will die from the disease.

The projected numbers for the year 2030 are 20 to 26 million new diagnoses and 13 to 17 million deaths. The growing cancer burden includes global increases of incidence of approximately 1 per cent each year, with larger increases in China, Russia and India. Reasons for the increased rates include adoption of Western habits in less developed countries, such as tobacco use and higher-fat diets, and demographic changes, including a projected population increase of 38 per cent in less developed countries between 2008 and 2030. In addition to increases in cancer incidence and death rates, the report identifies challenges in cancer care, especially in Africa, where pain management and palliative care are very limited because any use of narcotics is prohibited by law in several countries.

The call to action steps issued by the three organisations include: 1) making vaccines that prevent cancer-causing infections more widely available to low-income nations, including efforts to make the human papillomavirus vaccine accessible and affordable; 2) committing to a comprehensive tobacco control approach in the US, which includes taking measures proven effective in reducing smoking rates and having Congress grant the FDA authority to regulate tobacco; 3) ratifying immediately the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the first ever global public health treaty that sets forth comprehensive measures to reduce health and economic impacts of tobacco; 4) supporting efforts of non-governmental organisations to build advocacy and resources, empower survivors and reduce suffering in low- to middle-income countries by working with governments, medical professionals and the corporate sector to enable individuals to adopt healthier behaviours; 5) promoting culturally-sensitive risk reduction and education campaigns by leveraging US efforts to help build capacity of non-governmental organisations in other countries; and 6) investing in cancer research and expanding access to prevention and early detection measures in the US, with a specific focus on increasing federal funding of medical research.


Matthew Dennis - Editor, Cancer Drug News