Cancer control—a global challenge requiring collaborative solutions

Excerpt

In 2008, there were 12.4 million new cases of cancer worldwide and 7.6 million cancer deaths. It is projected that there will be between 20–26.4 million new cases and 12.9–17.0 million cancer deaths by 2030 (low estimates are based on no change in underlying rates; high estimates are based on an assumption of 1% increase per annum in the cancer incidence rate)[1]. The number of cancer cases worldwide doubled in the last third of the 20th century and will double again between 2008 and 2030 [1]. While the global average mortality:incidence ratio approximates 65%, this ratio ranges from 45% in Westernized, high-resource nations to >90% in resource-challenged countries. Five-year survival rates posttreatment of cancer range from 65% and an acknowledgement that cancer is becoming a chronic disease in high-resource nations, to a situation where cancer is almost invariably a fatal disease with little access to therapy or symptom control for most of the world's population [2].^. …