Cancer is not a particular organ-specific disease, but it can affect the whole body from starting at the small cell of any organ. Cancer can occur anywhere in the body. The primary feature of cancer is rapid, uncontrolled proliferation of the mutated cells that can cross any physiological boundaries and invade adjoining cells, tissues of the body, and spread to multiple organs. This metastatic feature of cancer is one of the primary causes of mortality. Cancer can also clinically describe as a malignant tumor or a neoplasm.
Death related to cancer becomes a global concern as it reaches the second leading cause of death. In 2018, approximately 10 million deaths that are one in six deaths occur due to cancer. The common trend of cancer that occurs mostly in females are breast, cervical, thyroid, colorectal cancers, and in male populations is affected with prostate, lungs, liver, stomach, and colorectal cancers.
Cancer impacts globally
The global cancer burden tremendously impacts physical, economical, and emotional trains among individuals, families, communities, and healthcare systems. The burden is huge for low and middle-class countries because of insufficient infrastructure and unpreparedness. A vast number of cancer patients in low and middle-class countries do not get access to quality diagnosis and treatment. In developed countries, cancer patients get early diagnosis facilities and also can afford high-quality treatments that improve survival rates.
The cancer outcome differs from country to country because of certain factors like national cancer screening policies, cancer pattern identification, cancer stage presentation, high-quality treatment accessibility, and cultural barriers.
Best cancer treatment availability depends upon several factors like medical expenditure, expert medical team, waiting time, traveling distance, etc. Following are five countries where these factors are crucially taking care of:
Australia
In terms of the incidence rate of different cancers such as skin, lungs, prostate, breast, and bowel are higher in Australia. But cancer mortality rate is lower in this country. This is a huge achievement for the Australian medical association and this is possible because of their smart health policies, planning, the infrastructure of a healthcare system that make Australia on top globally.
The Netherlands
The rapid diagnosis with the least waiting period, robust policy, and planning procedures of the healthcare system in the Netherlands make this country score high in cancer treatment. In this country, the cancer survival rate is highest for breast and skin cancer.
The USA
The world’s best cancer treatment centers such as the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins Hospital Sidney, Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York, and the renowned Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Maryland are located in the USA. The world’s leading cancer experts team is working in these cancer institutes. Almost 88% of breast cancer patients survive in the USA. Colorectal cancer patient’s survival rate is also very high in this country.
Canada
Breast cancer and prostate cancer patient’s survival rates are high in Canada. However, comparing with Eastern Canada, the survival rate is quite high in Western Canada. After 1980, the breast cancer incidence rate has lowered almost half because of preventive breast cancer screening programs along with high-quality treatment offered.
Finland
The high-quality diagnostic tools and processes make Finland a leading cancer care country. Over a period, many cancer patients traveled to Finland for better treatment. Finland consistently scores high for treating cancers like breast, prostate brain cancer with a very high 5-year survival rate.
