"We need a global fund for cancer care"

A special panel on addressing cancer in the developing world garnered much attention at the Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI) annual conference in September. So much so that The Daily Beast put it on their list of the "seven smartest ideas" heard at this year’s conference.

“Philanthropists used to believe there was no practical way to get expensive cancer treatments to the poor,” said PIH co-founder Paul, who spoke on the CGI panel. This idea is outdated and unfair, he added. "Poor people are kind of getting shafted. We need a global fund for cancer care.”

The panel was hosted by CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Panelists included HRH Princess Dina Mired, the Director General of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation; Dr. Patrick Almazor, a PIH physician who has worked on PIH projects in both Haiti and Rwanda; Felicia Knaul, the Director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative; and Lance Armstrong, the Founder and Chairman of LIVESTRONG.

Watch a video of the panel on the player below:

“One of the things we need to do is stop saying or suggesting that cancer is not a ranking concern [in developing countries], this is a serious problem,” Paul stated. “We have some tools that can be used to address cancer in developing countries and we need to deploy those tools.” After showing the world that cancer can be fought in urban areas, “we [are] trying to show that it’s also possible in rural places, in rural Africa.”

Cancer kills more people in developing countries each year than AIDS, Malaria, and TB combined, states a report from the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries, of which most of the panelists are founding members of. By 2030, it is estimated that about 70 percent of new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the developing world.

Read more about the importance of addressing global cancer.

Read the The Huffington Post's report on the CGI panel.