A REVIEW ON CANCER RESEARCH FUNDING

Cancer is one of the major causes of illness worldwide and the second most important cause of death. The burden of this disease goes beyond the individuals and their families to health caregivers and society. Many actors contribute to the management of cancer in a specific society, and one of the most important issues related to this is cancer research funding, which provides the opportunity for advances in cancer Biology, Etiology, Prevention, Early Detection, Treatment, Cancer Control and Scientific Model Systems. In this paper we presented a literature review on cancer research funding. We analysed the amount of money invested in cancer research in different regions, the type of funding organizations, the distribution of cancer research funding by percentage of Gross Domestic Product, by Common Scientific Outline categories and by cancer site. The results show that USA and Europe had the major spending in cancer research, followed by Canada, Australia, and Asia (especially Japan and China). Among European countries United Kingdom has allocated the largest funds for cancer research. The major funders for oncological research were the governmental organizations in USA, Canada, Australia, and both, governmental and charities, in Europe. In recent years China made impressive progress in cancer research funding, but is still far behind the Western countries. For all regions the majority of funding for cancer research was directed to Biology and Treatment, and less oriented to Prevention and Cancer control. However, in order to direct the funding for cancer research accordingly to burden of disease in different populations and societies, further research is needed.