Over 1.5 crore people will need chemotherapy globally each year by 2040: Study

Over 1.5 crore people will need chemotherapy globally each year by 2040, a new study has said, suggesting that around one lakh cancer physicians will be required to treat the growing number of cancer patients mostly in low and middle-income countries.

The study published recently in the prestigious the Lancet Oncology journal has predicted that from 2018 to 2040, the number of patients needing chemotherapy each year will rise by a 53 per cent from 9.8 million to 15 million (1.5 crore) globally.

It is the first study to estimate the scale of chemotherapy provision needed at national, regional and global scales to respond to this situation.

The study was conducted by researchers at University of New South Wales in Sydney, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Kinghorn Cancer Centre, Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre in Australia and International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon.

According to researcher Brooke Wilson of UNSW, the rising global cancer burden was undoubtedly ...