London, Thursday 10th May 2007.

Welcome to London on what even for this most historic of cities will be an historic day.  Later today the British Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce his decision - after ten years as one of our country’s greatest leaders in modern times - to stand down from office. 

Some would regard it as merely coincidence that we gather here today to debate the future of Africa – the continent to which Tony has shown such concern and dedicated such commitment over the last ten years.  But I would say it is fitting.  Indeed the Prime Minister has asked me to pass on his warm welcome and best wishes for our event today.

I hope that in time our gathering here might itself be regarded as historic: as the moment when developing and developed world alike came together to forestall a crisis that without action could have overwhelmed Africa – and that in the process together we contributed to saving countless lives. 

For today we meet to discuss how together we can tackle the coming cancer epidemic that has the potential to inflict untold misery on a continent already fighting the ravages of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.  And much else besides. 

In politics optimism is a useful commodity.  In health politics, it is an essential one.  In countries like my own health is often seen less as a career-enhancing choice and more as a poisoned chalice: a portfolio where crisis and catastrophe awaits around every corner.  That is not and has never been my view.  As Secretary of State for Health in Tony Blair’s government I had the privilege of being able to make a difference to the lives of the millions of patients who depend on that greatest of British institutions: the NHS. 

And if for a moment the pressures - of the press, the public or even the professions - make any health minister in the developed world feel hard done by they need only contemplate the predicament faced by their fellow health ministers in Africa to realise just how lucky they – and we as a country – really are. So it is with a sense of solidarity and support that I welcome health ministers from 23 countries in Africa to this event today.   

I welcome too some of the world’s leading oncologists and representatives of cancer organisations, the World Health Organisation,  the International Atomic Energy Authority, the World Bank, the pharmaceutical industry, non-governmental organisations and many others.   

In particular I would like to thank the conference sponsors for their support - the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GSK, Roche, Novartis and Eli Lilly.  And to the University of Oxford and the International Atomic Energy Authority whose PACT programme is already making a difference in Africa. 

Today we come together in common cause.  To first control and then to beat cancer in Africa. 

Some would say that is a hopeless cause.  And the scale of our task is indeed vast.   

Cancer is often caricatured as a disease of affluence, one that takes its greatest toll in the developed countries of the western world.  But like so many other diseases its greatest impact is in the poorest countries where it inflicts misery on top of poverty.  More than 70% of all cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries. In 2002 there were half a million deaths from cancer in Africa.  By 2020 that number will double to one million a year as growing tobacco usage and chronic viral infection – amongst other factors – take their toll on countries which simply cannot - on their own - deal with a new mass health epidemic.  As the incidence of cancer changes, with the developing world bearing an ever greater share of the future brunt, so must the scale of our response.  Without action the mismatch between Africa’s needs and its means will overwhelm health systems that are already struggling to cope.   

Cancer survival rates in the developing world are just half that in the developed world.  Despite the best efforts of the IAEA - through its PACT programme - radiotherapy facilities are available only in a minority of Africa’s countries so that while here in Europe there are 5 machines per million people, Africa has barely 0.2 per million.  Palliative care is a mainstream branch of medicine in the developed world but in the developing world hundreds die daily in distress for the want of pain relief that costs pennies not pounds.  The same is true of vaccines and drugs which are routine here and which could save thousands of lives there but which African health ministries simply lack the resources - financial and human - to make available to their peoples.   

And then there is the biggest obstacle of all. It is not the lack of diagnosis or drugs or doctors.  It is far more virulent than that.  It is a sense of disempowerment.  That the problem is just too big.  The resources at our disposal far too small.   

Realism is of course needed.  The battle against cancer will be long and it will be hard.  The position from which we start is far from ideal.  And yet the gap between where we are and where we could be is in so many ways frustratingly small. 

We know that one third of cancer deaths in the developing world could be prevented.  

We know what works. 

Controlling tobacco works. 

Early detection works.       

Screening works.   

Vaccines that protect against killers like Hepatitis B work. 

And many cancer fighting drugs costing less than £10 per cycle of treatment also work.  

The world’s scientific and clinical community - represented here today - knows what works in the battle to beat cancer.   

It is this knowledge about what works that gives me hope.   

And it is the commitment in this room to make it work that makes me believe it can be different. 

Each of the organisations represented here today have come not because they want to have a discussion but because they want to make a difference. 

By holding the meeting here over these next two days we hope to raise awareness and to raise resources.  Our ambition is to make the fight against cancer in Africa a global priority for the next decade.   

To that end I hope that the conference will conclude with a definitive and collective statement about how we together we can take cancer control forward in Africa. 

But I hope in these next two days we can move beyond good intent to a firm plan. 

During my time as health secretary I published a national action plan to tackle cancer in this country drawing on the advice of clinicians, managers and patients. 

That ten year plan focussed effort on improving cancer services.  It galvanised resources.  It gave confidence to clinicians and patients.  And it provided a systematic means to dismantle piece by piece a problem that at first sight looked too large and too complex to tackle.  Seven years since that cancer plan was published death rates from cancer are down and survival rates are up as both prevention and treatment services have improved.   

I hope in these next two days we can begin to identify the components of a plan to control cancer in Africa.  Such a plan could then by adapted and implemented country by country, building on the infrastructure and networks being put in place to tackle AIDS/HIV and other diseases. 

Critical to any such plan’s success will be the active involvement and ownership of health ministries and health ministers.  You know best your own country’s problems and their potential solutions.  But I hope as a result of this conference today we can bring external help - whether it be technical, financial or policy support.  I know in particular that the University of Oxford, through David Kerr, stands ready to play a co-ordinating role to make that happen.  So do I and many others who are gathered here today.   

Today’s conference begins that process of sharing knowledge and expertise, and I hope in time, resources.  I believe that from this conference we can construct a partnership that controls cancer in Africa.  The need has never been more urgent.  The opportunity for collective action has never been greater. By working together we can prevent another tragedy.