Redefining global health priorities: Improving cancer care in developing settings

Every year, more than 10 million people are diagnosed with cancer. Over half of them live in the developing world, where the cancer incidence rate has reached pandemic proportions. In 2008 there were upward of 12.4 million estimated new cases of cancer, with approximately two–thirds of the estimated 7 .6 million cancer deaths occurring in low–and middle–income countries [1]. Although low– and middle–income countries bear the majority of the disease burden, their health systems are inadequately prepared to address the challenge of care. Since cancer kills more people worldwide than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, it needs to be a global health priority.