Global cancer incidence reached an estimated 20.6 million new cases in 2024, with 9.8 million deaths, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s GLOBOCAN report. Lung cancer remains the deadliest, accounting for 1.86 million fatalities, followed by colorectal, liver, breast and stomach cancers. Yet the same period has seen a decoupling of diagnosis from mortality: oncologists in Singapore report that many patients now survive more than a decade after diagnosis, a shift they attribute to therapies that target the specific molecular drivers of an individual’s tumour.

This precision-medicine approach relies on multi-omics—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics—to map the unique biology of a cancer. At specialised centres, tumour boards of oncologists, geneticists and bioinformaticians interpret these profiles to assign therapies by subtype rather than by organ. In breast cancer, for instance, clinicians now routinely distinguish hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-positive and triple-negative disease, each requiring a different combination of endocrine therapy, targeted antibodies, chemotherapy or immunotherapy. The method is already standard for certain leukaemias: chronic myeloid leukaemia, driven by a single chromosomal mutation, is managed with a daily tablet. Researchers in Stanford are exploring whether continuous multi-omic tracking can detect disease at a pre-symptomatic stage, though this work remains in early clinical validation.

Viewed from Southeast Asia, the therapeutic gains are colliding with a steep rise in lifestyle-driven cancers. A senior consultant at Singapore’s Parkway Cancer Centre notes that breast cancer has overtaken cervical cancer as the most diagnosed malignancy in women across 164 of 186 countries, while endometrial cancer is projected to surge. Obesity, high insulin levels, physical inactivity and diets rich in sugar are identified as common drivers. A Russian mammologist adds that chronic sleep deprivation, stress and even moderate but regular alcohol consumption elevate risk, particularly for hormone-dependent tumours in women under 40. There is no safe dose of alcohol from an oncological standpoint, he warns.

In Indonesia, where GLOBOCAN 2022 recorded 408,661 new cases and 242,988 deaths, the burden is compounded by limited access to low-dose CT screening for lung cancer and restricted public-insurance coverage for targeted therapies. The World Health Organization’s 90-70-90 strategy for cervical cancer elimination—90 per cent of girls vaccinated against HPV, 70 per cent of women screened, 90 per cent of those with disease treated—remains a distant benchmark. Clinicians stress that early detection, weight management and HPV vaccination are the most immediate levers, while the next milestone will be the integration of next-generation sequencing into routine diagnostic pathways, a step that regulatory bodies across the region are beginning to evaluate.