INCIDENCE OF CANCER TO SOAR WORLDWIDE

GOVERNMENTS worldwide were yesterday urged to act to avert a global cancer
crisis with incidence of the disease expected to double in the next 20
years.

By 2020 the number of people developing cancer is expected to soar to 20
million, according to a report from the World Health Organisation. Of these
around 10 million will probably die.

The gloomy forecast is the result of a rapidly ageing population in most
countries, coupled with smoking and poor diet. More than half the cancer
victims will live in poorer countries that between them have less than 5%
of the world's resources for treating the disease.

In Britain, half the population would develop cancer compared with one in
three people today.

WHO yesterday announced a cancer control programme aimed at reducing the
expected cancer toll by five million a year by 2020 and death rates by six
million.

Professor Karol Sikora, chief of WHO's cancer programme, said governments
around the world would all have to join in the fight, working in
partnership with the private sector. He said: "The next 25 years will be a
time of unprecedented change in the way in which we shall be able to
control the spread of cancer.

"By 2020, there will be 20 million new cancer patients every year. And 70%
of them will live in countries that between them will have less than 5% of
the resources for cancer control.

"It's imperative that the private sector plays its part since resources
have become over-stretched and the lives of millions are at risk. Together,
we can make a difference."

A quarter of all cancers could be prevented simply by applying existing
knowledge, said Professor Sikora. A third were curable using today's
technology and in 25 years time it should be possible to cure a half of all
cases. But the appropriate expertise had to be at the right place at the
right time and widely accessible.

The key to success was collaboration between public and private
organisations, said WHO. Every business, workplace, city and school had the
ability to influence and improve public health.

Professor Sikora said it was "imperative" that with public resources
over-stretched the private sector became involved.

"Dramatic increases in life expectancy, combined with profound changes in
lifestyles, will lead to global epidemics of cancer and other chronic
diseases in the next millennium, " he said.

"The main result of this will be a huge increase in human suffering and
disability.

"We have a responsibility, as leaders in world health, to find and promote
ways to reduce that coming burden. But this can't be achieved through
governmental efforts alone, divorced from the resources and expertise that
exists with the private sector.

"Cancer care, like airline travel, petrochemicals and telecommunications,
is a truly international endeavour. It's costly, often way beyond the
purchasing power of many countries with people on low incomes."

The WHO initiative is based on a "priority ladder" setting out agreed
targets for effective anti-cancer control, tailored to the circumstances of
each country.

The organisation hopes to co-ordinate and implement this approach in all
191 member states of the United Nations.

Middle-income countries were expected to bear the brunt of the cancer
epidemic, mainly because fewer people were dying from childhood infections
and living to an older age. Cancer is much more prevalent in the elderly
than in the young.

But an increase in smoking in developing countries is expected to
contribute to rising cancer rates there. In China, 70% of men smoke.