Approximately 25 million persons are living with cancer throughout the world. More people die from cancer than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. In 2007, around 11 million new cases were diagnosed and about 8 million people died of cancer, accounting for about 13% of all deaths. It has been estimated that approximately 72% of these deaths occurred in developing countries. If current trends continue, new cases of cancer will increase to 16 million per year and more than 10 million will die. We need to take action now because one-third of cancer cases can be prevented and another third can be cured if detected early and treated properly.

Cancer in Zambia

• The most common cancers are cervical, Kaposi Sarcoma, bladder, prostate and breast.
• Zambia has the second highest incidence of cervical cancer in Africa.
• Cervical cancer ranks the 1st most frequent cancer in women in Zambia.
• Zambia has a population of 3.17 million women ages 15 years and older who are at risk of developing Cervical Cancer.
• Approximately 1,650 women in Zambia are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and 1,340 die from the disease (about 81%). Source: World Health Organization.