The Evolving Scale and Profile of Cancer Worldwide: Much Ado About Everything

Today, cancer is responsible for one in three premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases worldwide, and the number of annual cancer diagnoses will rise to well over 20 million by the year 2030. That cancer is of profound importance to future global health reflects both recent gains in human development as well as mortality transitions that are centuries old. Still, cancer is complex, and the extensive geographical and temporal heterogeneity alerts us to the need for targeted, local approaches to cancer control. The study of trends in specific cancer types remains essential in monitoring and evaluating such strategies and as a descriptive tool for hypothesizing possible contributory factors. Of greatest necessity is an expansion of the availability of high-quality data. To improve the limited cancer incidence data available in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), the Global Initiative for Cancer Registry Development (http://gicr.iarc.fr) is an international partnership supporting countries to redraw the surveillance map.