It is too expensive, too complicated, or simply not Africa’s priority. But the problem of cancer on the continent is real and, believe it or not, more African women die of cancer than complications from pregnancy. Over 250,000 African women lost their lives to cancer in 2012—the equivalent of one African woman losing her life every three seconds. The recent commemoration of World Cancer Day is a challenge to us as Africans and the global community to recognize this problem and face it head on.
Despite these mismatched priorities, Cancer is not a disease of only Western or developed countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 455,695 people in the African region died from cancer in 2012.