Conquering cancer

摘要

The latest cancer statistics, released last week, are concerning. GLOBOCAN 2012, the International Agency for Research on Cancer's online database, shows that the global burden of cancer increased in 2012 to 14-1 million new cases and 8-2 million deaths, compared with 12-7 million and 7-6 million in 2008. Furthermore, GLOBOCAN 2012 predicts that there will be 19-3 million new cancer cases per year by 2025 due to growth and ageing of the global population. It confirms—as the last update GLOBOCAN 2008 did—that cancer is a global health priority. More than half of all cancers and cancer deaths in 2012 occurred in low-resource settings, and these proportions will increase further by 2025.