The globalization of the US economy has brought with it a number of benefits and concerns, such as outsourcing. Undoubtedly, however, it has raised our national consciousness about the citizens of the countries in what we often refer to as the developing world. With their poverty and other needs, we have taken a fresh look at their health and disease burdens, chiefly with a focus on infectious diseases. Efforts to ameliorate their battles with malaria, AIDS, and other crushing problems have been led by the likes of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Bono.
We can almost forget that cancer, too has become a major cause of mortality in these regions of the world. Although the spectrum of cancers typically seen may differ from those in the West, our old enemy tobacco has been surreptitiously spreading its poison abroad, and lung cancer has risen to be the number one cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, beating out upper GI tract malignancies.
In this issue of Cancer Prevention, we continue our series on Cancer Around the Globe with an article on the specter of tobacco in its global effects. Dr. Prabhat Jha highlights the growing epidemic of tobacco-related cancers in the developing world and warns that we must find a means to interrupt this, as we have done in the West. In addition, we highlight one of the most important environmental hazards and carcinogens now known, the extraordinary levels of arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh and its impact on the health of rural Bangladeshis.
The Editors
Andrew J. Dannenberg, MD
Henry R. Erle, MD-Roberts Family Professor of Medicine
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Co-Director
Cancer Prevention Program
Columbia Weill Cornell Cancer Centers
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Alfred I. Neugut, MD, PhD
Myron M. Studner Professor of Cancer Research
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Head of Cancer Prevention
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health
Co-Director
Cancer Prevention Program
Columbia Weill Cornell Cancer Centers
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
