By MONICA KAYOMBO, Lusaka, Zambia
DESPITE advances in prevention and treatment, lung cancer remains the world’s deadliest cancer largely because it is often detected too late. Strengthening local diagnostic capacity is one of the most effective ways to reduce the global burden of lung cancer.
According to the opinion piece published by Devex publication, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO, lung cancer was responsible for 1. 8 million deaths or 18% of cancer deaths in 2020 alone. Despite these staggering numbers, lung cancer often receives less attention than other cancers, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
And the piece also says while tobacco remains a major driver of lung cancer, there are other known and unknown risk factors. For example, emerging information shows rising cases linked to air pollution and other environmental factors. Adenocarcinoma a cancer that starts in the gland cells of the lungs now accounts for nearly 46 percent of lung cancer cases in men and 60 percent in women globally, reflecting these shifts in the disease’s risk profile.
For decades, the narrative was one of inevitability and despair. Today, that is rapidly changing in high-income countries. Advances in prevention, early detection, and treatment are rewriting the story but only if we act with urgency and with the lens of global health equity at the forefront.
In the United States, the five-year survival rate for lung cancer has improved to nearly 30 percent representing a 26 percent increase over the past five years, based on the latest surveillance, epidemiology, and end results, or SEER, database. Yet fewer than one-third of cases are diagnosed at an early stage, when five-year survival can reach about 60 percent. Evidence from long-term studies shows that lung cancers detected through low-dose CT screening can achieve survival rates of 80 percent or higher over 20 years. These numbers underscore a simple truth: Early diagnosis saves lives.
The challenge is even greater in sub-Saharan Africa, where lung cancer often remains underdiagnosed due to symptom overlap with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, or TB, and limited diagnostic capacity. As a result, lung cancer cases are frequently misclassified as tuberculosis, or never recorded at all — creating the false impression of low burden while delaying care and eliminating opportunities for early intervention.
The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, or BMS Foundation, in partnership with organizations such as the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, or IASLC, is working to change this reality in different regions and through different partners. By integrating lung cancer screening into TB programs, training local health care workers, and leveraging existing HIV diagnostic frameworks for cancer care pathways, we can build sustainable solutions. With the collaboration of local ministries of health, it can then be scaled across the African continent.
Globally, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, responsible for killing an estimated 1.8 million people in 2022 alone. It kills more people annually than breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers combined. Yet, despite this massive impact, lung cancer remains a disproportionately underfunded and overlooked challenge in global health.
In many regions, the barriers to care are immense. With limited national screening programs and diagnostic infrastructure, patients in medically underserved and resource-limited settings often face a long and uncertain journey to diagnosis. When caught early, a patient’s five year survival rate can jump from just 4 percent to 55 percent but without access to the right tools and systems, these opportunities for life-saving intervention are often missed.
Seif Gracien Hasingizwimana
