WHO Touts Vaccines in Global Principles Against Cancer

The World Health Organization issued two reports on Tuesday to promote a global approach on cancer and cautioned on an anticipated increase in cases, highlighting the promise of vaccines.  

WHO raises awareness on the potential for a 60 percent spike in cancer cases worldwide over the next two decades. Most (81%) new cases are projected to occur in low- and middle-income countries. This “if current trends continue,” WHO warns. It cites inefficient and uninformed selection of programs and products and “profoundly inequitable” access to effective services. 

WHO aims to promote a globally harmonized agenda on cancer by guiding investments through new priorities. The Report on Cancer notes that “cancer control can be a highly investments.” It complements the concurrently issued report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which focuses on prevention and offering an overview of recent, relevant research.

The US pharma oncology market will reach up to $100 billion by 2022, IQVIA reported in 2018. 

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “At least 7 million lives could be saved over the next decade, by identifying the most appropriate science for each country situation, by basing strong cancer responses on universal health coverage, and by mobilizing different stakeholders to work together.” The coordinated reports respond to government calls for additional research into the scope of, potential policies for and programs on cancer control.

IARC’s World Cancer Report discusses various cases of vaccine interventions to prevent certain cancer types. These include hepatitis B vaccines to prevent liver cancer and HPV vaccines for eliminating cervical cancer. The UN agency touted advances in cancer research and prevention. 

WHO prequalified its first biosimilar medicine trastuzumab—supplied by Netherlands-based  Samsung Bioepis NL B.V.—last December for access to an affordable breast cancer treatment. 

High-income countries have already seen “an estimated 20% reduction in the probability of premature mortality between 2000 and 2015, but low-income countries only saw a reduction of 5%,” IARC director, Elisabete Weiderpass, said. “We need to see everyone benefitting equally.” 

Low- and middle-income countries are likely to see an estimated 81 percent spike in new cases mostly because of their need for focusing limited resources on combating infectious diseases.

The move coincides with the release of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Clinical Cancer Advances 2020 report. ASCO’s report sets new priorities for progress against cancer. 

ASCO research priorities were first set in 2019. 2020 priorities retain identifying strategies to predict response and resistance, optimizing care for older adults with cancer and reducing obesity’s impact on cancer incidence and outcomes. 2019’s priority to increase precision medicine research and treatment approaches in pediatric cancers includes other rare cancers,

2020 priorities seek to better detect and treat malignant lesions and reduce adverse events, too. 

“Many research advances are made possible by federal funding,” ASCO’s president, Lori Pierce, said on Tuesday. “With the number of new US cancer cases set to rise by roughly a third over the next decade, continued investment in research at the national level is crucial to continuing critical progress in the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.”