By Candace Gwaltney
June 17, 2026
A global cancer workforce crisis is looming; IU expert helps sound the alarm
A new study is sounding the alarm for a looming global workforce crisis in cancer care. By 2050, worldwide cancer cases will increase by 75% and the workforce to care for those patients will fall short. An estimated 100 million workers will be needed to care for roughly 35 million patients worldwide.
The findings of The Lancet Oncology Commission on the Global Cancer Workforce, “Cancer Workforce—A Global Crisis,” were presented during the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting earlier this month in Chicago, which brings together more than 40,000 oncology professionals from around the world.
Patrick J. Loehrer, MD, an IU Distinguished Professor and director of the IU Center for Global Oncology at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, served as one of the commission's lead authors and presented the findings along with co-authors Hedvig Hricak, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Zachary J. Ward, PhD, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The commission developed a detailed model of existing resources plus the current and projected cancer cases of 17 common cancers and 18 workforce personnel types. The study found that the global workforce will need to expand dramatically to care for the 35 million people expected to have cancer by the year 2050. Preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer requires a broadly trained workforce.
"This Lancet Commission looked at the global workforce, and it's more than just training medical oncologists, surgeons or radiation oncologists," Loehrer said. "There's a number of other people, including primary care doctors, nurses, community health care providers, technicians, physicists, laboratory technicians, radiologists — there's a whole cadre of different groups of health care providers that are necessary to take care of cancer patients."
The study found that workforce needs vary by region. In Sub-Saharan Africa, two out of three cancer cases go undiagnosed entirely — pointing to a need for generalists, primary care providers and improved screening infrastructure. Meanwhile, nurses will be the highest need in the United States and medical oncologists in Brazil.
To address this crisis, the Commission outlined a seven-point call to action that includes training programs and task-shifting, expanding workforce registries, adopting digital tools and developing scalable solutions.
“What it does require is for each country — and I dare say here in the United States, each state — to carefully look at what they have in terms of resources and identify cancer control plans that not only focus on developing workforce in certain areas, but also recognizing the areas that need addressed in terms of diagnosis, treatment, and care,” Loehrer said.
For Loehrer and the IU Center for Global Oncology, the findings reflect challenges that need addressed both in Indiana and internationally.
“When we think about global oncology, it's not just cancer around the world,” Loehrer said. “It's really those issues that affect people around the world. And some of the same issues that are affecting people in Africa affect us here in Indiana.”
Those challenges include access to care, financial toxicity associated with cancer care costs, and the cost of treatments. Still, the greatest challenges are for low- and middle-income countries where 70% of new cancer cases will occur and many patients are diagnosed with advanced disease.
As the Center for Global Oncology serves as “thought leaders and conveners,” Loehrer said it is working closely with colleagues in Africa and Nepal to address challenges and facilitate training.
“We tend to, as oncologists, think that cancer is the center of the world and if we solve that, we solve a lot of problems,” Loehrer said. “But we have to recognize that there are many other problems that intersect with cancer. And how can we appropriately deal with the cancer issue when they're dealing with other devastating issues such as war, food insecurity or natural disaster? This is a very complex issue, and we're all interwoven.”
