The cancer burden and cancer control in developing countries

Substantial changes in large parts of the developing world have materialised in the last three decades. These are extremely diverse countries with respect to culture, societal values and political arrangements, but sharing one feature--prevalent poverty and limited resources to protect the health of individuals. The control of emerging chronic diseases in low-resource countries is a formidable challenge. For this reason any intervention should be kept logistically simple and incorporated into a general plan aiming at building gradually the infrastructure that is necessary to bring care to the population at large. The present contribution summarizes some of the priorities in cancer prevention in developing countries and the underlying evidence base, and addresses some of the challenges.