WHO 3 February 2017 – Launched ahead of the World Cancer Day (4 February), the new WHO guidance aims to improve the chances of survival for people living with cancer by ensuring that health services can focus on diagnosing and treating the disease earlier. Strategies to improve early diagnosis can be built into health systems at a low cost. In turn, effective early diagnosis can help detect cancer in patients at an earlier stage, enabling treatment that is generally more effective, less complex, and less expensive.

Early cancer diagnosis saves lives, cuts treatment costs

News release

3 February 2017 | GENEVA - New guidance from WHO, launched ahead of World Cancer Day (4 February), aims to improve the chances of survival for people living with cancer by ensuring that health services can focus on diagnosing and treating the disease earlier.

New WHO figures released this week indicate that each year 8.8 million people die from cancer, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. One problem is that many cancer cases are diagnosed too late. Even in countries with optimal health systems and services, many cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when they are harder to treat successfully.

"Diagnosing cancer in late stages, and the inability to provide treatment, condemns many people to unnecessary suffering and early death," says Dr Etienne Krug, Director of WHO’s Department for the Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention.

"By taking the steps to implement WHO’s new guidance, healthcare planners can improve early diagnosis of cancer and ensure prompt treatment, especially for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancers. This will result in more people surviving cancer. It will also be less expensive to treat and cure cancer patients."

All countries can take steps to improve early diagnosis of cancer, according to WHO’s new Guide to cancer early diagnosis.

The three steps to early diagnosis are:

• - Improve public awareness of different cancer symptoms and encourage people to seek care when these arise.
• - Invest in strengthening and equipping health services and training health workers so they can conduct accurate and timely diagnostics.
• - Ensure people living with cancer can access safe and effective treatment, including pain relief, without incurring prohibitive personal or financial hardship.

See http://www.who.int/en/