Cancer experts urge greater focus on prevention

Cancer is not an inescapable fate. But while prevention can save millions of lives much more cheaply than treatment, it remains an underfunded, much-neglected weapon in the anti-cancer arsenal, experts say.
Some 14 million new cancers are diagnosed each year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) -- a number expected to swell to 21 million by 2030.
As the global cost of treatment skyrockets, measures to prevent people getting cancer in the first place are an increasingly important focus in seeking to limit the expected explosion.
"The way things will evolve over, let's say the next 20 years, are very dramatic; many countries (will have) probably twice as many cancers," said Christopher Wild, director of the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

"That's particularly true for countries with limited resources, the low and middle-income countries," he told AFP.
With less access to diagnosis and treatment, these countries already bear two-thirds of the world's annual 8.8 million cancer deaths.

In 2015, governments and patients spent USD 107 billion (99 billion euros) on cancer drugs -- an increase of 11.5 per cent from 2014, according to the Global Oncology Trend Report of the IMS Institute.
The figure was expected to grow to USD 150 billion by 2020, it said, a rise driven largely by the expense of newer, more specialised drugs to which just a minority of patients have access.

"Treating our way out of the cancer problem is not realistic," Wild told AFP on the eve of tomorrow's World Cancer Day.
With prevention, on the other hand, as much as a third of cancers can be avoided today, according to the WHO.
Public enemy number one is tobacco, which "will kill a billion people in the world in the 21st century," said Thierry Philip, president of the Institut Curie cancer research centre in Paris.
Of these, 100 million will be in China alone.
Cervical cancer, in turn, can be avoided by vaccinating against the human papilloma virus (HPV). Regular screening can pick up pre-cancerous lesions, which can be treated before developing into full-blown disease.

Physical inactivity, obesity and heavy drinking are risk factors for all sorts of cancer, while eating too much red and preserved meat can lead to cancer of the colon, says the WHO.
Too much sun, easily avoided by wearing a hat or seeking out the shade, causes melanoma.
Vaccination prevents Hepatitis B infection, which can lead to cancer, and basic, good hygiene can thwart the bacterium Helicobacter Pylori, which boosts the risk of stomach cancer.