World Cancer Day: Early Detection Is Essential for Achieving Complete Recovery
On the occasion of World Cancer Day, today, Sunday, February 4, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that one of its main missions in the fight against cancer is to strengthen national policies, plans, and programs dedicated to cancer prevention and control.
The organization emphasized that its key responsibilities include:
Setting laws and standards for cancer control,
Promoting evidence-based prevention,
Ensuring early detection,
Providing screening, treatment, and palliative care,
Developing survivorship programs, and
Strengthening cancer registries and research systems — all tailored to the specific needs and resources of each country.
The Importance of Early Cancer Detection
Early detection aims to identify patients showing signs or symptoms of cancer as soon as possible, in order to ensure the best chance of successful treatment.
When cancer is detected late or not at all, the chances of survival drop significantly, treatment becomes more complex and costly, and recovery rates decline.
Therefore, early detection is one of the most critical public health strategies worldwide to enable complete recovery and save lives.
Screening as a Public Health Strategy
Screening is a distinct but related strategy to early detection.
It is defined as the testing or examination of apparently healthy individuals with no symptoms, to identify undiagnosed cases of cancer as early as possible using simple, reliable, and affordable methods.
A proper screening program must include all stages of the process — from public awareness campaigns to effective treatment and follow-up for those diagnosed.
Compared with early detection, cancer screening is a more complex public health intervention, requiring more resources, infrastructure, and coordination.
The World Health Organization recommends that screening programs should only be implemented when their effectiveness is proven, when resources are sufficient to cover the target population, when reliable diagnostic and treatment services are available, and when cancer prevalence is high enough to justify population-level screening.
WHO’s Global Support for Member States
The World Health Organization supports its member states in developing and implementing effective early detection and screening programs for cancer, based on each country’s capacity and feasibility assessments.
These efforts aim to avoid delays in diagnosis and treatment, which are key factors in cancer mortality.
In 2017, the WHO launched the “Guide for Early Cancer Detection”, which provides policy-makers and program managers with practical guidance to:
Facilitate early diagnosis,
Improve access to timely and effective treatment, and
Implement comprehensive national strategies for early cancer detection.
By promoting effective early detection strategies, countless lives can be saved, while also reducing the social and economic burden of cancer care.
Source: Syndicate of Health Workers – Akre Branch