Alan Milburn and David Kerr: Africa's hidden epidemic of cancer

Africa faces a new health epidemic: cancer. In 2002, there were half a million deaths from cancer in Africa. In less than 20 years that number could double to one million a year as growing tobacco usage and chronic viral infection, among other factors, inflict untold misery on a continent already fighting the ravages of HIV/Aids, TB, malaria and much else besides.

According to the World Health Organisation, 12.5 per cent of all deaths worldwide are caused by cancer, a greater percentage than is caused by HIV/Aids, TB and malaria combined. Cancer is often caricatured as a disease of affluence, one that takes its greatest toll in the developed countries of the Western world. In fact, like so many other diseases, its greatest impact is in the poorest countries, where it heaps agony on top of poverty.

More than half of new cancer cases occur in developing countries, where it is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The International Agency for Research on Cancer predicts that cancer rates will increase dramatically in the coming years. The brunt will be borne not by the wealthiest countries, but by the poorest. More than 70 per cent of all new cancer cases are anticipated to be in developing countries.

Africa is least equipped to cope. On their own, African countries simply will not be able to deal with this coming cancer epidemic. That is why in London over the next two days we have brought together African health ministers and doctors with some of the world's leading cancer specialists and organisations, the World Health Organisation, World Bank, International Atomic Energy Authority and non-governmental organisations to begin drawing up a cancer control plan for Africa.

Without action, the mismatch between Africa's needs and its means will overwhelm health systems that are already struggling with a rising tide of illness and inadequate resources and infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, cancer survival rates in the developing world are just half that in the developed world. Radiotherapy facilities are available in only a minority of Africa's countries, so that while here in Europe there are 5 machines per million people, Africa has barely 0.2 per million.

Palliative care is a mainstream branch of medicine in the developed world, but in the developing world hundreds die daily in distress for the want of pain relief that costs pennies, not pounds. The same is true of vaccines and drugs that are routine here, and which could save thousands of lives there, but which African health ministries simply lack the resources - financial and human - to make available to their peoples. In Africa, cancer is a sentence to a painful and distressing death.

So far, then, so bad. Yet the gap between where we are and where we could be is in so many ways frustratingly small. We know that one-third of cancer deaths in the developing world could be prevented. Thanks to decades of scientific and clinical advances we now know what works in the battle against cancer.

Research has given us an ever-increasing range of effective treatments for many cancers. Some cancers, such as haematological malignancies and childhood cancers, have a high cure rate. Others, such as cervical, breast, head and neck cancers, can best be tackled through screening.

But the chances of surviving depend largely on how early the cancer is detected and on societal awareness of its symptoms. The priority has to be early detection and diagnosis through public and primary healthcare workers, with education strategies that can bring patients to curative care earlier, thereby preventing a huge number of deaths.

So early detection and screening works. Controlling tobacco works. Vaccines that protect against killers such as Hepatitis B work. And many cancer fighting drugs costing less than £10 per cycle of treatment also work.

By holding the meeting over these next two days, we hope to raise both awareness and resources. Our ambition is to make the fight against cancer in Africa a global priority for the next decade. In the immediate aftermath of the conference, we hope to assemble the components of a plan to control cancer in Africa. Such a plan could then be adapted and implemented country by country, building on the infrastructure and networks being put in place to tackle Aids/HIV and other diseases.

Investment in prevention, early diagnosis, treatment palliative are all needed. So are trained staff, equipment, relevant drugs and information systems. Critical to success will be the active involvement and ownership of health ministries and local clinicians. But we hope, as a result of the conference, we can bring in external help, whether it be technical, financial or policy support.

The UK has a noble tradition of supporting health care in the developing world through the NHS, our universities, drugs companies, development agencies and, of course, government. In the past 10 years as Prime Minister, Tony Blair has dedicated huge commitment to Africa.

It is, perhaps, fitting that we seek to extend that commitment by making cancer control in Africa a new priority for action. The need has never been more urgent. The opportunity for collective action has never been greater. By working together we can prevent another tragedy.

The Cancer in Africa conference takes place in London today and tomorrow.

Alan Milburn is a Labour MP and was Secretary of State for Health 1999-2003. Professor David Kerr is Rhodes Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics, University of Oxford