The global health agency disclosed this in a statement to commemorate World Cancer Day 2022.
Stressing that the disease has become one of the world’s leading causes of death, it warned that the death toll would continue to rise in years to come.
According to the WHO, the survival of children diagnosed with cancer is more than 80 per cent in high-income countries and less than 30 per cent in low- and middle-income countries.
It revealed that the survival for breast cancer five years after diagnosis has exceeded 80 per cent in most high-income countries, compared with 66 per cent and 40 per cent in India and South Africa respectively.
A recent survey, the agency stated, found that cancer services were covered by a country’s largest government health financing scheme in an estimated 37 per cent of low- and middle-income countries, compared to at least 78 per cent of high-income countries.