Much can be done to ease cancer burden in poorer nations

Although more than half of all new cancers and two-thirds of annual cancer deaths worldwide occur in low- and middle-income countries, with the cancer burden disproportionately affecting the poor, a new report offers upbeat, realistic recommendations on ways to alleviate the problem, according to a November 5, 2011 Lancet editorial.

The report, Closing the Cancer Divide: A Blueprint to Expand Access in Low and Middle Income Countries, was released October 28 at a global conference at Harvard by the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries  (GTF.CCC). The Task Force was convened in November 2009 by Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Harvard Global Equity Initiative.