The event was to mark World Cancer Day.
Health Secretary Enrique Ona laid out the burden of cancer in the Philippines, which kills 7.3 million people worldwide annually.
He said it is estimated that one in five Filipinos will be afflicted with cancer during their lifetime. “With the population approaching 100 million, this translates to 20 million of our countrymen that will require cancer care,” he said.
Will the Philippines respond and Move As One?
By Cecilia Llave,MD.
Researchers Colin D. Mathers and DejanLoncar, in a study funded by the World Health Organization and published in 2006, have found that it is cancer, not infectious diseases, that has been killing more people worldwide.
They observed that in 2002, infectious diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria – altogether killed 5.3 million people. Cancer, however, well exceeded this, accounting for some 7.2 million deaths worldwide.
The number of cancer cases, moreover, is growing. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) noted that from 12.9 million worldwide in 2009, cancer cases in 2020 will reach 16.8 million – an enormous number of ill people that surpasses the entire population of Metro Manila by some 5 million more.
In the Philippines 82,468 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2010, according to the Philippine Cancer Facts and Estimates. That does not include Filipinos who had previously been diagnosed of the disease. During the same year, according to the estimate, nearly 52,000 Filipinos died due to the disease.