Cancer is generally low or absent on the health agenda of most the world’s low- and middle-income countries (LMCs), even as it is growing as a share of these countries’ overall disease burden.  
In light of this situation, the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to study the issue and provide an assessment and recommendations to tackle the problem. In response, the IOM has produced a report, Cancer Control Opportunities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

The report describes a series of appropriate and feasible “next steps” that will help LMCs begin to lessen the toll that cancer takes on their citizens.  The report calls for the broader global health community to collaborate with LMC partners in a number of ways:

• Recognizing cancer control as a priority in LMCs and providing appropriate levels of aid for cancer-control projects;
• Helping develop cancer advocacy in these countries; and
• Establishing collaborations between cancer centers or other medical institutions in high-income countries and those in LMCs.