Cancer is rapidly becoming a major health threat in Africa. Raising awareness of this problem and implementing strategies to tackle it are among the biggest challenges facing the global health community today. A high-level meeting in London, UK, on 10-11 May, 2007, aims to discuss these issues — and to find solutions.
Under the auspices of PACT, the University of Oxford, and other leading cancer organisations, the meeting will bring together top policy-makers, cancer professionals and donors from around the world. Health Ministers from more than 10 African countries will attend. Called Cancer Control in Africa: An Interagency Forum, it will examine the need for cancer control programmes across the region, establish priorities and seek cost-effective interventions. At the same time, it will underline the urgent need for investment in cancer prevention, screening, treatment and palliation.
The forum will draw attention to the anticipated dramatic increase in cancer over the next decade in the developing world. According to the WHO, 12.5% of all deaths worldwide are currently caused by cancer, a greater percentage than caused by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) predicts that cancer rates will increase by 50%, from 11 million new cases in 2000 to 16 million new cases by 2020. The largest rates of increase of new cases are foreseen in developing countries, where governments are less able to address the growing cancer burden.
The agenda will aim to:
- Raise awareness of need for cancer control programmes in Africa
- Identify imperatives of health policy makers and relative position of cancer in the hierarchy of priority health concerns
- Initiate discussion between cancer experts and health policy makers with a view to prioritising which component programmes might allow cost-effective interventions
- Present economic case for urgent investment in cancer
Africa, with 10% of the world's population, has the least access to cancer care services. For example, less than 20% of the population has access to radiotherapy. Currently only 209 machines are in operation for a population of over 880 million, and 32 of the 53 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have no operating radiotherapy services at all, nor any prevention, screening, early diagnosis, or palliative care programmes.
The London meeting builds on previous commitments to address the cancer crisis, particularly in Africa, including:
- The “Cape Town Declaration on Cancer Control in Africa”, issued in December 2006. More than 70 high level health care authorities and experts from Africa participated in the IAEA Nobel Prize Special Event on Human Resources Development in Radiation Oncology in the Context of Cancer Control Programmes that took place in South Africa in December 2006. Participants signed the Declaration, which stresses the need for cancer control in Africa.
- The 58th World Health Assembly resolution on cancer prevention and control, May 2005, which recognized that all countries should urgently take stock of their health service priorities and make cancer of prime importance at the national level.
- The draft Cancer Prevention and Control Plan for Africa prepared by the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), which addresses the ways to move cancer forward as a critical issue within the global health community.
The London meeting is organised jointly by The University of Oxford, the International Atomic Energy Agency's Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (IAEA/PACT), the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR) and other sponsors in the UK.