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Not so long ago, cancer used to be a monopoly of developed countries. The poorer side of the world at that time was pre-occupied with fighting off infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Fast forward to the present, more than half of the world's cancer cases are now in low and middle-income countries.

According to NPR, 57% of cancer diseases are attributed to the less developed nations of the world with 65% of all cancer deaths occurring in these countries in a study backed by American Cancer Society.

Cancer is no longer a killer of affluent societies. In fact, most, if not all, rich countries had seen a significant drop in cancer cases due to a more accessible and better quality of public healthcare system as well as massive disease awareness campaigns as reported by Wall Street OTC.

"The rates of many cancers are being brought under control in Western countries through decreasing prevalence of known risk factors, early detection, and improved treatment," told Lindsey A. Torre, MSPH of the American Cancer Society who was also the main proponent of the research as quoted saying by Latinos Health.

Regardless of income levels, cancer remains the main cause of death worldwide.

The study also revealed that the highest reported cases of cancer in the developing world are colon, lung, and breast cancers which are all linked to lifestyle risk factors as stated by Health.

The research pointed out that as societies become increasingly familiar with Western habits and lifestyles, many in the developing world have sunk into destructive and unhealthy habits such smoking, physical inactivity, overconsumption of alcohol, and eating of processed food and meats as mentioned in a Forbes article.