WHO survey reveals most countries lack cancer care services

The World Health Organistion (WHO) has published survey results concerning the cancer burden from 115 countries, showing a majority of countries do not adequately finance priority cancer and palliative care services, as part of universal health coverage (UHC).
WHO’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), also released the latest estimates of the global burden of cancer to mark World Cancer Day on Feb 4.
The IARC estimates, based on the best sources of data available in countries in 2022, highlight the growing burden of cancer, the disproportionate impact on underserved populations and the urgent need to address cancer inequities worldwide.
In 2022, there were an estimated 20 million new cancer cases and 9.7 million deaths.
The estimated number of people who were alive within five years following a cancer diagnosis was 53.5 million.
About one in five people develop cancer in their lifetime, about one in nine men and one in 12 women die from the disease.
The global WHO survey on UHC and cancer shows that only 39 per cent of participating countries covered the basics of cancer management as part of their financed core health services for all citizens, ‘health benefit packages’ (HBP).
Only 28 per cent of participating countries additionally covered care for people who require palliative care, including pain relief in general, and not just linked to cancer.
The new estimates available on IARC’s Global Cancer Observatory show that 10 types of cancer collectively comprised around two-thirds of new cases and deaths globally in 2022.
Data covers 185 countries and 36 cancers.
Lung cancer was the most commonly occurring cancer worldwide with 2.5 million new cases accounting for 12.4 per cent of the total new cases.
Female breast cancer ranked second (2.3 million cases, 11.6 per cent), followed by colorectal cancer (1.9 million cases, 9.6 per cent), prostate cancer (1.5 million cases, 7.3 per cent), and stomach cancer (970 000 cases, 4.9 per cent).
Lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer death (1.8 million deaths, 18.7 per cent of the total cancer deaths) followed by colorectal cancer (900,000 deaths, 9.3 per cent), liver cancer (760,000 deaths, 7.8 per cent), breast cancer (670,000 deaths, 6.9 per cent) and stomach cancer (660,000 deaths, 6.8 per cent).
Lung cancer’s re-emergence as the most common cancer is likely related to persistent tobacco use in Asia.
There were some differences by sex in incidence and mortality from the global total for both sexes.
For women, the most commonly diagnosed cancer and leading cause of cancer death was breast cancer, whereas it was lung cancer for men.
Breast cancer was the most common cancer in women in the vast majority of countries (157 of 185).
For men, prostate and colorectal cancers were the second and third most commonly occurring cancers, while liver and colorectal cancers were the second and third most common causes of cancer death.
For women, lung and colorectal cancer were second and third for both the number of new cases and of deaths.
Cervical cancer was the eighth most commonly occurring cancer globally and the ninth leading cause of cancer death, accounting for 661,044 new cases and 348,186 deaths.
It is the most common cancer in women in 25 countries, many of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Even while recognising varying incidence levels, cervical cancer can be eliminated as a public health problem, through the scale-up of the WHO Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative.
Striking cancer inequity by Human Development Index (HDI)
Global estimates reveal striking inequities in the cancer burden according to human development.
This is particularly true for breast cancer.
In countries with a very high HDI, one in 12 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and one in 71 women die of it.
By contrast, in countries with a low HDI; while only one in 27 women is diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, one in 48 women will die from it.
“Women in lower HDI countries are 50 per cent less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than women in high HDI countries, yet they are at a much higher risk of dying of the disease due to late diagnosis and inadequate access to quality treatment,” explains Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram, deputy head of the cancer surveillance branch at IARC.
WHO’s global survey of HBPs also revealed inequities.