FACTBOX: Cancer in the developing world

(Reuters) - Experts from an international working group on cancer, CanTreat, launched a report on Tuesday calling for more funds and focus to be targeted toward preventing and treating the disease in poorer nations.

The report's authors warned of a looming "tsunami of cancer" threatening to overwhelm health authorities that are among the world's worst-equipped to deal with the disease.

Following are some key facts from the report:

* Cancer kills more people each year in low and middle-income countries than AIDS, TB and malaria combined.

* More than half of all new cancer cases and almost two-thirds of cancer deaths in 2008 occurred in low and middle-income countries.

* Only about 5 percent of global resources for cancer are spent in developing countries.

* In 2007, there were an estimated 464,854 breast cancer deaths worldwide, of which an estimated 255,576 were in the developing world.

* Around 80 percent of cancer patients in the poorer regions of the world are not seen until their disease is advanced.

* Late-stage breast cancer is up to nine times more costly to treat than the early disease, and the outcomes much poorer.

* In 2007 there were an estimated 555,094 new cases of cervical cancer and an estimated 309,808 deaths from the disease worldwide.

* More than 85 percent of global deaths from cervical cancer occur in the developing world, where it is the leading cause of cancer death among women.

SOURCE: CanTreat International

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Jon Hemming)