World Cancer Day, marked each year on February 4, aims to raise awareness of the global cancer burden and inspire greater effort to fight the disease. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hosted a special World Cancer Day event at the Vienna International Centre (VIC), Vienna, Austria.
Latest figures from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) show that by 2010 cancer will have overtaken cardiovascular disease to become the world´s number one killer. According to IARC´s World Cancer Report for 2008, there were more than 12 million new cancer cases worldwide last year alone. Because people in developing countries are now living longer and adopting western lifestyles, including more tobacco use and high-fat diets, cancer numbers are increasing dramatically and many cancer patients have little or no access to proper diagnosis and treatment.
Incidence is rising so rapidly that by 2030 there could be as many as 27 million people with cancer and 17 million cancer deaths annually, more than 70% of them in the developing world. The IAEA is urging a vigorous, collaborative approach such as Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT), towards fighting the disease in poorer countries that are least able to cope with the worsening cancer crisis.
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