THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that one in every six deaths in the last decade was caused by cancer.

This is contained in a report published by the WHO in commemoration of the World Cancer Day celebrated on February 4th of every year to raise awareness on the deadly disease.

According to the WHO, the number of deaths from cancer has significantly increased in 2020 compared to the last decade.

“The number of deaths from cancer has also increased, from 6.2 million in 2000 to 10 million in 2020. More than one out of every six deaths is due to cancer,” WHO says.

WHO adds that the overall number of people diagnosed with cancer nearly doubled, from an estimated 10 million in 2000 to 19.3 million in 2020.

It also predicts that one in every five people in the world develops cancer during their lifetime.

“Projections suggest that the number of people being diagnosed with cancer will increase still further in the coming years, and will be nearly 50 percent higher in 2040 than in 2020,” the report reads in part.

COVID-19 worsens situation of last-stage patients

The report further states that the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck the world in 2019, worsened the condition of late-stage diagnosis.

WHO says the situation was exacerbated by late diagnosis and lack of access to treatment.

During the peak of 2020, many countries, including Nigeria, locked down their nations to curb the spread of the virus that has so far killed more than two million people in the world.

On lack of access and late diagnosis, the WHO says the situation occurred everywhere but particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

“In addition to having to cope with the disruption of services, people living with cancer are also at higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death,” the report reads.

In 2018, The ICIR reported that a cancer activist, Runcie Chidebe, executive director of Project PinkBlue, a non-governmental organisation working to eradicate or at least minimise incidents of cancer in Nigeria, said more than 72,000 people died of cancer each year in Nigeria.

Chidebe added that out of the over 72,000 deaths, about 102,000 cases of cancer were recorded in the country every year.