We all have friends and family who have lived – and died – with cancer. Cancer is one of the world’s leading causes of death, and its burden is growing. In 2021, the world crossed a sobering new threshold – an estimated 20 million people were diagnosed with cancer, and 10 million died. These numbers will continue to rise rapidly in the decades ahead. And yet all cancers can be treated, some can be cured, and many can be prevented.
Yet care for cancer, like so many other diseases, reflects the inequalities and inequities of our world. The survival of children diagnosed with cancer is more than 80 per cent in high income countries, and less than 30 per cent in low and middle income countries. Likewise, breast cancer survival five years after diagnosis now exceeds 80 per cent in most high income countries, compared with 66 per cent in India and just 40 per cent in South Africa.
Cancer cases are rising most rapidly in poorer countries where comprehensive treatment is generally not available. Over 80 per cent of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low and middle income countries, and less than 15 per cent of low income countries are able to offer cancer care to their populations.
These devastating inequalities remind us that we are failing much of the world. We will not achieve the target in the Sustainable Development Goals of a one-third reduction in premature mortality from noncommunicable diseases by 2030 without strong political commitment, backed by investment.
It is against this backdrop that we commemorate the partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the IAEA and the launch of IAEA’s Rays of Hope, which is designed to address a persistent inequality in access to radiotherapy.
