WHO’s Global Status Report on Cancer 2026, published this July, is the most comprehensive picture yet of where the world stands against cancer. It confirms what we at City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) have argued since our inception: the barrier to equitable cancer care is no longer what we know about cancer, but what we do with that knowledge.
The numbers speak for themselves. 20.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2024, a figure projected to reach 35 million a year by 2050. One in five of us will develop cancer in our lifetime, and once we count the people who love and care for them, nearly all of us, 92%, will be touched by the disease at least once.
Cancer’s reach is universal; its survival is not. Whether someone survives now depends less on the biology of the disease than on where they live and what they can afford. Five-year survival of breast cancer and childhood cancer exceeds 85% in high-income countries and falls below 45% in low-and-middle income countries. Only 12 countries are on track to meet the global target of cutting premature cancer deaths by a third by 2030.
WHO names the reason plainly: “ a substantial implementation gap has emerged between plans and outcomes.” Closing this implementation gap is why C/Can exists.
WHO’s recommendation for closing the gap is explicit: embed cancer control within health systems strengthening and universal health coverage, with national cancer control plans as the catalyst, not the endpoint. We unpacked this recommendation in a recent webinar with Dr. Susan Henshall, representing WHO’s cancer department, which you can watch here.
Since 2017, C/Can has worked alongside cities, bringing governments, private and public institutions, healthcare professionals, civil society organisations and academia around the same table, to build a health system capacity that turns a national cancer control plan into a better coordinated system that ultimately benefits the people it’s meant to serve:
- 937K – cancer patients reached at city level
- 13.8M – cancer patients reached at national level
- 124 civil society organisations engaged in identifying local priorities
- 3,400+ healthcare professionals trained
This is the case we’ll be reinforcing at the World Cancer Congress, held in Hong Kong, from the 24 to 26 September, a city at the centre of a region where our work continues to grow. C/Can is organising and contributing to a series of sessions that put this evidence into practice. Across the Congress, we’re organising and participating in sessions spanning Africa, Asia, and Latin America, from city-led case studies to new tools and partnerships for strengthening care systems from the ground up.
If you are on site at WCC 2026, come find us at any of our sessions. If you’re working to close the gap in your own city or country, wherever you’re based, we’d love to welcome the conversation. Explore our participation at WCC 2026.
