More than 19 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2020 with poor countries hit hardest by the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

WHO said that 19.3 million were diagnosed with cancer last year noting that the number is expected to "grow significantly in the coming decades.

Speaking on Tuesday ahead of the Feb. 4 World Cancer Day, Andre Ilbawi, Technical Officer of the WHO, said at a press conference in Geneva that the number of people with cancer is expected to rise by 47 per cent worldwide by 2040.

Ilbawi told reporters that "cancer is the second leading cause of death globally."

While more and more people will be plagued by cancer, low- and middle-income countries will bear that burden more heavily.

He explained that already 70 per cent of the people dying from cancer live in such countries and treatment services were available only "to less than 30 per cent of low-income countries," while more than 90 per cent of the patients in high-income countries had access to cancer treatment.

Moreover, late-stage diagnoses are recurrent in poorer countries even though "many cancers have a high chance of cure if diagnosed early and treated appropriately."

This situation can further affect the capacity of low and middle-income countries to prevent cancer, said the WHO official.

Lack of access to quality and affordable diagnosis and treatment are common, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, a situation that Ilbawi reported "has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic."

According to the latest WHO survey, the global pandemic has created more negative conditions for care of cancer, as "treatment for cancer had been disrupted in more than 40 per cent of the countries surveyed.

"That state of affairs is further complicated by the fact that people living with cancer are at higher risk of severe Covid-19-related illness and death,” Ilbawi said.