‘Cancer is tripling and will keep increasing’: first African to lead global action against disease ready for battle

With cancer cases rising fastest in poorer countries, Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, says Africa needs investment in research, diagnosis and prevention When Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu last saw Gloria in Abuja, the young breast cancer patient was so ill that she was in hospital.

The cancer had spread to her bones and lungs, and she was struggling with complications from the disease. Then, at a global conference on cancer thousands of miles away in Hong…