Overview
The 2025 State of Cancer Policy report is the Institute’s annual assessment of the global cancer policy landscape. This year’s edition focuses on the widening equity gap in cancer outcomes — a divide that is not inevitable, but political.
Key findings
The mortality gap is growing. Age-standardised cancer mortality rates in low-income countries now exceed those in high-income countries by a factor of 3.4 — up from 2.8 in 2015. This is not primarily a function of incidence. It reflects differential access to diagnosis, treatment, and palliative care.
Late-stage diagnosis remains the primary driver of poor outcomes. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 70% of cancers are diagnosed at stage III or IV, compared with under 30% in Western Europe and North America. Expanding screening and early detection programmes in high-burden settings would have a greater impact on mortality than any single treatment intervention.
Workforce gaps are severe and worsening. There are currently fewer than 1,000 oncologists serving sub-Saharan Africa’s 1.4 billion people. At current training rates, this gap will not close until after 2060 without deliberate, funded intervention.
Drug access inequity is structural, not incidental. The median price of a standard course of targeted therapy represents more than 40 times the per-capita health expenditure in low-income countries. This is not a market failure — it is a policy failure, amenable to political solutions.
The five-point agenda
- Universal cancer registry coverage by 2030, funded through a dedicated WHO mechanism
- Mandatory technology transfer provisions in cancer drug patent agreements
- Regional radiotherapy networks in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, modelled on the successful Latin American experience
- LMIC-led clinical trial infrastructure, reducing dependence on Northern research institutions
- Cancer equity benchmarks embedded in Universal Health Coverage frameworks
Download
The full report, including country profiles and data annexes, is available as a PDF download.