The burden of cancer has been on the increase over the past few decades. In 2012 alone, 8.2 million people worldwide were estimated to have died from cancer. More than two thirds of these deaths occurred in low- and middle- income countries.

The most common cancers in the African Region are cancers of the cervix, breast, liver and prostate as well as Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.