There is a study which suggested that environmental factors are behind some forms of cancer, but in some poor nations like Chad, Cancer is not the biggest killer. There are many other diseases that are killing people.

In the US, the average age to develop colon cancer is 69 in males and about 73 in females, but Chad has the average life expectancy at birth is approximately 50. Cancer is not in the list of the top 15 causes of death in Chad. Many children, who somehow manage to survive childbirth, die of malaria, AIDS, pneumonia, influenza and tuberculosis. Most of the people don’t even reach to a stage when colon cancer strikes.

Nations like the US have developed ways to save people with cancer. Earlier, oncologists announced good news on Mr. Carter’s cancer. They said they are working to rid a 91-year-old former president of metastatic melanoma, a deadliest form of cancer. The drug, Keytruda, which Carter’s was taking, is priced at $12,500 a month.

In today’s developing world, cancer has a very different look. Nations like the United States, Australia and Canada are with the highest incidence, while many African countries are with fewer cases of cancer. But it doesn’t mean that people in these poorer nations have a healthy life. Cancers that arise in these places are far less likely to be survived.

According to reports, “Cancers of the poor will gradually give way to cancers of the more affluent. They will move up the list of leading killers, replacing the old diseases”.