We see thousands of individuals, communities, and organisations coming together every year on February 4 to demonstrate a shared responsibility in reducing the global impact of cancer.
On this global uniting day, we pledge our solidarity with the affected people to say that they are not alone. This means all of us will play a mutually respected role in the responsibility of reducing this global disease.
Although we all join together in an effort to raise awareness about cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, it is time that we ask ourselves what role we play no matter who we are and how we are wherever we are.
We all also know that cancer is one of the world’s leading causes of death, and its burden is growing. According to WHO figures, each year, over 8.8 million people die from cancer, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
Globally, there are an estimated 20 million new cases of cancer and 10 million deaths from cancer. The cancer burden is expected to increase by approximately 60 per cent over the next two decades, further straining health systems, people, and communities.
The predicted global burden will increase to about 30 million new cancer cases by 2040, with the greatest increases occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
According to a study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the incidence of early onset cancers — including breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver, and pancreas — has dramatically increased around the world, with the rise beginning around 1990.
One clear trend that emerged in the research is the dramatic changes that are taking place in our lifestyle resulting in a steep rise in the number of cancer cases among adults under 50. Several modifiable risk factors early in life — like what people eat, how much they exercise, and whether they maintain a healthy weight — can all play a role in cancer risk.
Surprisingly, researchers found that while adult sleep duration hasn’t drastically changed over several decades, children are getting far less sleep today than they were decades ago.
Risk factors such as highly processed foods, sugary beverages, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol consumption have all significantly increased since the 1950s.
Care for cancer, however, according to WHO, like so many other diseases, reflects the inequalities and inequities of our world. The clearest distinction is between high- and low-income countries, with comprehensive treatment reportedly available in more than 90 per cent of high-income countries but less than 15 per cent of low-income countries.
A recent WHO survey revealed that cancer services are covered by a country’s largest, government health financing scheme in an estimated 37 per cent of low- and middle-income countries, compared to at least 78 per cent of high-income countries.
This means that a cancer diagnosis has the potential to push families into poverty, particularly in lower-income countries, an effect that has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Increased efforts to scale up high-quality cancer programmes at international, national, and community levels are all the more important. By collaboration, commitment, and solidarity, however, hope can be provided to the many millions of people for whom cancer treatment has in the past been little more than a dream.
So with the World Cancer Day theme “Close the Care Gap” that will continue till next year, every single person with the ability to make a difference, large or small, coming together can make real progress in reducing the global impact of cancer!
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