Global cancer cases would reach 26.4 million a year by 2030

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Cancer diagnoses and death rates are rising, but funding for cancer care and research is "broken" with poor nations hardest-hit, researchers in Scotland say.

Lead author Professor Peter Boyle, director of the University of Strathclyde Institute of Global Public Health, said private medical and pharmaceutical industries should work more closely with governments and the public sector to enable them to cope with the growing international cancer burden.

The "State of Oncology 2013" report said cancer diagnosis and death rates were rising across the world, while access to care was inconsistent between nations. The report predicted global cancer cases would reach 26.4 million a year by 2030, in large part due to the impact of expanding and aging populations in populous countries such as India, China and Nigeria, along with changing lifestyles.

"It is bad to have cancer, and worse to have cancer if you are poor," Boyle told the European Cancer Congress in Amsterdam. "Many parts of the world are already unable to cope with the current situation and are totally unprepared for the future growth of the cancer problem."

Boyle called for a private-public fund to help poorer countries manage, citing 2009 estimates by the Economist Intelligence Unit that it would cost $217 billion a year to bring cancer diagnosis, care and treatment in poor countries up to the standards of wealthy nations.

"There's no single source of philanthropy, there's no government, there's no company, there's no single institution that can afford that sort of investment," Boyle said.