The Global Call to Action Against Cancer

Will the Philippines respond and Move As One?

By Cecilia Llave,MD.

Traditional view holds that infectious diseases cause more deaths than cancer does. Recent findings have shown this to be false.

Researchers Colin D. Mathers and DejanLoncar, in a study funded by the World Health Organization and published in 2006, have found that it is cancer, not infectious diseases, that has been killing more people worldwide.

They observed that in 2002, infectious diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria – altogether killed 5.3 million people. Cancer, however, well exceeded this, accounting for some 7.2 million deaths worldwide.

The number of cancer cases, moreover, is growing. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) noted that from 12.9 million worldwide in 2009, cancer cases in 2020 will reach 16.8 million – an enormous number of ill people that surpasses the entire population of Metro Manila by some 5 million more.

In the Philippines 82,468 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2010, according to the Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates. That does not include Filipinos who had previously been diagnosed of the disease. During the same year, according to the estimate, nearly 52,000 Filipinos died due to the disease.

Staggering as they are, the Philippine statistics may still be an underestimation. The uncertainty is rooted on the fact that the Philippine data were derived from only two cancer registries – one in Metro Manila and another that covers Metro Manila and Rizal Province. Not captured in the statistics is the rest of the country, particularly some Visayas and Mindanao areas that are known to be the Philippines’ poorest locales.

Experts have long conceded that poverty has much influence on cancer incidence and fatalities. They observed that cancer is likely to arise and progress to death in areas where the facilities and know-how for the prevention, early detection, and treatment of the cancer are unavailable, inaccessible or unaffordable.

Cancer is no longer a disease of the rich. The IARC’s World Cancer Report 2008 substantiated this observation with numbers. In 1970, the report noted, developing countries accounted for only 15% of new cancer cases in the world. In 2008, however, 50% of new cancer cases were found in developing countries. The report pointed out that if the trend continues, 70% of new cancer cases in the world will be in developing countries by the year 2030.

How many people will be afflicted with cancer in 2030? About 27 million worldwide, according to the IARC report, and deaths from the disease that year will reach 17 million.

The Philippines, being a developing country, stands to suffer much along with other developing countries that will minister to 70% of the cancer patients worldwide 18 years from now.

“Lack of funds” has been the usual plaint of developing countries faced with an impending crisis such as the growing global burden of cancer. Several scientists, however, pointed out in the journal The Lancet less than two years ago that money should not be a problem.

The scientists said the world spent $305 billion in 2009 to conduct study, prevent, and treat cancer. Only 5% of this, however, was spent on and in developing countries. The bulk, 95%, of the anti-cancer resources went to rich and developed countries, which accounted for only 15% of the world population.This great imbalance in the use of global anti-cancer resources can be resolved with the use of innovative global and regional financing mechanisms, they said.

Fighting cancer, particularly in developing countries, need not be expensive, the scientists emphasized. Countries with limited resources and with little or no specialized anti-cancer services can overcome the burden of cancer through the deployment of trained primary and secondary caregivers, low-cost screening and treatment technologies, and through special emphasis on cancer prevention.

These approaches are now embodied in the World Cancer Declaration that is deposited with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC: http://www.uicc.org/) in Geneva. The Declaration brings to the attention of government leaders health policy makers 11 objectives to be achieved by 2020 to significantly reduce the global burden of cancer. To date, more than half a million people worldwide have signed the Declaration.

In the Philippines, the first organized move to increase public awareness on the burden of cancer and on the World Cancer Declaration will be held at the Diamond Hotel in Manila on February 3 in a forum called “Moving As One, A Global Call to Action : Preventing Cancer To Save Lives.” The gathering will also serve as a prelude to the Philippine observance of the February 4 World Cancer Day, and will feature discussions among leaders of anti-cancer organizations, government health agencies, and foreign and Philippine anti-cancer experts.

About the author:
Gynecologic-oncologist Dr. Cecilia A.L. Llave is a consultant at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) and the Asian Hospital. She is the program director for external affairs of the nongovernmental organization Cancer Institute Foundation (CIF), and project director of the Cancer Prevention Clinic, a joint project of Chevron Philippines, the UP-PGH, and the CIF.