Economist
http://www.economist.com/
Accessed 1 March 2014

Cancer in the developing world
Worse than AIDS
The burden of cancer is falling increasingly heavily on the poor
Mar 1st 2014 | From the print edition

Excerpt
SARA STULAC is a paediatrician, but doctors in Rwanda must be adaptable. One of her first patients after arriving from America in 2005 was a young girl with a tumour the size of a cauliflower on her face. The girl’s father, a subsistence farmer, had tried traditional healers and local doctors, but the tumour had grown, along with his expenses. An oncologist was needed. If only the country had one. Eventually Dr Stulac called one in America who talked her through the treatment that would save the girl’s life.

What makes this story unusual is its happy ending. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organisation (WHO), low- and middle-income countries accounted for 57% of the 14m people diagnosed with cancer worldwide in 2012—but 65% of the deaths. Cancer kills more people in poor countries than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined…