Cancer the leading killer

Cancer now claims more lives in developing countries each year than malaria, tuberculosis or Aids, according to a report issued in advance of World Cancer Day.

In 2008, more than 12 million new cancer cases were diagnosed worldwide and 7.6 million people died of cancer, Agence France Presse reported.

Developing nations accounted for more than half of all new global cancer cases and about 60 percent of cancer deaths, according to the report from health foundation and consultancy Axios International.

"Cancer in the developing world is a hidden crisis that goes largely unreported, undiagnosed and untreated," said study co-author David Kerr, a professor of clinical pharmacology and cancer therapeutics at the University of Oxford in the UK, AFP reported.

"Cancer survival rates in developing countries are exceptionally poor. Lack of awareness, stigma and reliance on traditional healers mean most people do not seek medical help until their disease is advanced, and often incurable," Kerr said. – (HealthDay News, February 2009)

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