Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter When I worked on the latest Global Burden of Disease cancer study, a global project that tracks cancer patterns and deaths across countries, I found myself pausing as the numbers loaded on the screen. Even as a scientist used to large datasets, the scale was hard to process. Behind every line of code was a family who might lose a parent or child to a cancer that could have been prevented or treated earlier. The projections for South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were especially stark. It was clear that millions of people would be living and dying with avoidable cancers in the decades ahead unless something changed. Infectious outbreaks or antimicrobial resistance are often labelled as global health crises. Yet a quieter crisis has been gathering force for decades. Cancer is …