[Cancer in developing countries. Illness in a diseased world]

Abstract

In Third World countries, cancer is mainly a risk for the future generations. Without achieving adequate cancer control in developing countries, much of the progress in the fight against infections will be lost. While the industrialized countries are more and more concerned to avoid cancer risk factors and, thus, decrease the frequency of cancer, only few such steps can be seen in developing countries. Based on the actual cancer mortality and demographic projections in the year 2000, cancer mortality in the whole world will be 8 to 10 millions (2 to 3 millions in industrialized countries, 6 to 7 millions in developing countries). But while 60% of the world's new cancer patients are in the Third World, the developing countries dispose only 5% of the world's total anticancer resources. The cancer situation in the Third World indicates that in spite of many humanitarian efforts and many previous statements the fight against suffering in the world often stagnates. Therefore, it seems to be justified to call the world "sick". However the suffering of the Third World is curable. However we have to accept that the present world is not functioning very well, we have to explore the reasons for that and to solve existing problems.