Global cancer: overcoming the narrative of despondency

It is easy to become despondent about global cancer. Feb 4 marks World Cancer Day, and renewed calls to “close the cancer care gap”. But the worldwide inequities in cancer care and control are deeply rooted. The facts are stark. Childhood cancer survival rates, for example, are more than 80% in high-income countries versus 20% in low-income countries. These disparities arise from huge differences across cancer prevention and care—in exposure to risk factors, in availability of public health programmes, and in access to diagnostics and treatments—compounded by growing cancer incidence.