Breast and Cervical Cancers are More Prominent in Poor Countries
Breast cancer and cervical cancer are among the most common cancers all over the world. Though it continuous to spread in all parts of the globe, there were higher number of cases recorded to poorer countries.
A research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington found out that the population of breast cancer cases in 1980 was doubled from 641,000 cases to 1.6 million cases recorded in 2010 on poorer countries. Records show that after three decades the number of patients suffered from breast cancer increased to almost 75%.
An increase of 250,000 to 450,000 breast cancer annual cases was also noted from 1980 to 2010 on wealthier countries. These countries were able to produce vaccines and other medications and treatments for breast cancer patients unlike poorer countries that do not have enough budgets to respond to this situation.
On the other hand, the cases of cervical cancer increased for almost 20% on the same period. Numerous deaths were also recorded.
"Women in high-income countries like the United States and the United Kingdom are benefiting from early cancer screenings, drug therapies, and vaccines," said Rafael Lozano, a professor from IHME who’s also part of the study. "We are seeing the burden of breast and cervical cancer shifting to low-income countries in Africa and Asia." He added.
Lozano also claims that the emergence of these cancer cases is a sign of the spread of non communicable or chronic diseases to developing countries.
The same study shows that the increase of cervical cancer cases killed a lot of women in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. On the contrary, the cases of cervical cancer have declined in countries where shots, vaccines, and screenings are readily available.
But cervical cancer still managed to kill 200,000 women from all ages all over the world in to which 46,000 are from developing countries. And because of this study and the increasing cases of killer diseases like different types of cancers, the leaders all over the world are now alarmed.
In fact, the United Nations will be having its meeting on September 19 and 20 in New York to talk about solutions in fighting these diseases. They will definitely talk about providing screenings for prevention and vaccines and other measures for treatment.
There are different screening processes available for early breast or cervical cancer detection. Early detection can maximize the treatment measures. Aside from that, huge companies of drug makers such as Merck and GlaxoSmithKline have launched vaccines for HPV protection for girls which is said to be the leading cause of these diseases.