Cancer research funding in Asia

In inner Mongolia, 4500 people die of cancer, mostly of the liver, per year. But most people in the country bordering China and Russia are dying of cardiovascular disease or infectious diseases and do not reach the age at which cancer becomes common. But in its rapidly developing neighbour, China, cancer is now a leading cause of premature death, killing 1.9 million people, most of them under 70, with tumours of the stomach or, increasingly commonly in both males and female, the lung. In the Pacific the spectrum is as wide. Check the causes of mortality in Fiji and you will find that in 2005, 480 people, 370 under the age of 70 died of cancer – mostly cervical cancer in women and liver cancer in men while most Fijians succumb to cardiovascular diseases. In Australia, Fiji’s large southern neighbour the picture is entirely different with cancer killing approximately 38,000 people, making it the leading cause of death in that country. And in Australia skin cancers rarely seen in the rest of Asia dominate, thanks to its relatively recently arrived non-Asian population spending too much time under the hot southern sun. Naturally, cancer research dollars follow cancer rates. Australia with its high cancer rates incidence spends more money on cancer research than its Asian-pacific counterparts and has a longer history of well-funded cancer research. Its funding structure is a mixture of private and public funding with organizations like Cancer Australia raising and contributing A$36 million of the estimated A$100 million given by non-pharmaceutical bodies (essentially governments and cancer councils). The amount contributed by pharmaceutical companies for clinical trials and basic research is not publicly available. Celebrity diagnoses add considerably to the funding pool. When Kylie Minogue, a global pop icon was diagnosed with breast cancer, donations flooded in. Such a phenomenon