The UN health agency on Tuesday, February 4 warned cancer cases would rise by 81% in low- and middle-income countries by 2040 because of a lack of investment in prevention and care, AFP reports.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report that these countries had focused their limited resources on combating infectious diseases and improving maternal and child health instead of fighting cancer.

It said they often had the highest cancer mortality too.

"This is a wake-up call to all of us to tackle the unacceptable inequalities between cancer services in rich and poor countries," Ren Minghui, a WHO Assistant Director General, said in the report.

"If people have access to primary care and referral systems then cancer can be detected early, treated effectively and cured. Cancer should not be a death sentence for anyone, anywhere," he said.

The report, timed to coincide with World Cancer Day, said an investment of $25 billion (23 billion euros) over the next decade could save seven million lives from cancer.

The annual report found that overall cancer cases in the world would rise by 60 percent by 2040 and said tobacco use was responsible for 25 percent of cancer deaths.