Cancer in the Commonwealth: a Lancet Oncology Commission.

Five-year net survival for eleven common cancers in the Commonwealth is estimated at 30·7% in 2020, ranging from 4·1% in low-income countries to 59·0% in high-income countries.

• Why it matters: Cancer burden is rising across 56 Commonwealth nations, but national capacity to respond is uneven, with survival gaps linked to late diagnosis and limited health-system resources.
• What they did: The Commission assembled evidence over 2 years and used a validated microsimulation model to estimate survival and drivers, including late-stage presentation affecting 62% of patients in LICs versus 43% in HICs.
• The result: Scaling up treatment, imaging, and quality of care could increase Commonwealth 5-year net survival from 30·7% to 52·9%, averting 5·8 million deaths and adding 113 million life-years between 2025 and 2035.

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