Controlling cancer in the Pacific

Cancer is a significant and growing problem in the Pacific, with limited resources and finance, and a strategy which means cancer is often overshadowed by other diseases. Now researchers are calling for the challenges faced by the island nations to be facilitated through a regional cancer control partnership.

The recently published paper Cancer control in the Pacific: A South Pacific collaborative approach, is co-authored by Dr Sunia Foliaki from Massey University’s Centre for Public Health Research, with Chris Bates (University of Melbourne), Dr Isimeli Tukana (Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Fiji) and Dr Neal Palafox (University of Hawaii Cancer Centre).

Dr Foliaki, the paper’s lead author, says population health planners in the Pacific have housed cancer control under non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control. “This has led to cancer being overshadowed by other diseases and NCD programmes, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and chronic respiratory illnesses.”