Ghana's Cancer Crisis: 27,385 New Cases, 17,944 Deaths A National Health Emergency Hiding in Plain Sight ‎

The Numbers Behind the Headline
Ghana recorded an estimated 27,385 new cancer cases and 17,944 cancer-related deaths in 2022 . The figures, drawn from the 2022 Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) estimates of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), were re-amplified this week by Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Breast Care International (BCI) and Peace and Love Hospitals, at a fundraising dinner in Maryland, United States, aimed at mobilising support for the proposed Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Excellence (CCCoE).

Strip away the aggregate figure and the disease's asymmetry becomes clear. Women accounted for 15,987 new cases and 9,856 deaths, while men recorded 11,398 new cases and 8,088 deaths in 2022.

Liver cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer were the three leading causes of cancer death nationally that year .

A Mortality Rate That Should Alarm Policymakers

What distinguishes Ghana's cancer burden from that of wealthier nations is not incidence it is survivability. Liver cancer alone carried a 90 percent mortality rate in 2022, with 2,390 deaths recorded out of 2,656 cases.

Prostate cancer, the leading male cancer, recorded a 52 percent mortality rate, resulting in 1,233 deaths out of 2,395 cases. Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, Acting Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), cited these figures at a February 2025 press briefing marking World Cancer Day, noting that his outfit had intensified campaigns targeting leading male cancers, including prostate and liver cancer.

These are not simply diagnostic statistics. A 90 percent mortality rate for liver cancer signals a health system encountering the disease almost exclusively at its terminal stage a pattern consistent with reporting that roughly 70 percent of Ghanaian women diagnosed with breast cancer present in advanced stages.

The Regional Dimension: Volta's Disproportionate Burden

The national picture masks sharp regional disparities. Speaking at the inauguration of a postgraduate certificate programme on Oncology Nurse Leadership in July 2025, Volta Regional Minister James Gunu disclosed that the Volta Region alone contributes 16.9 percent of the national cancer burden, with prostate cancer leading the disease pattern there.

Gunu noted that Ho Teaching Hospital, the region's referral centre, is constantly grappling with considerable emotional trauma among cancer patients depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation are common, with relatives, nurses and spiritual guides often filling gaps left by limited access to mental health support.

That detail matters. It echoes a broader, underreported dimension of Ghana's health crises the psychological toll of chronic and terminal illness on patients navigating a system with thin specialist coverage, a theme that recurs across cancer, kidney disease and other non-communicable disease reporting in Ghana.

Why Kwaso, Why Now: The Case for a Comprehensive Cancer Centre

Dr. Wiafe Addai has framed the statistics as a call to treat cancer as a national health challenge rather than an individual medical misfortune.

She told the Maryland audience that the proposed cancer centre grew out of years witnessing patients struggle with late diagnosis, limited treatment options and the financial burden of care with some patients travelling long distances for treatment and families sometimes selling property to finance it.

The proposed Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Comprehensive Cancer Centre of Excellence, planned for Kwaso near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, is billed as a $100 million project intended to bring screening, diagnosis and treatment under one roof.

At the project's sod-cutting ceremony, Dr. Wiafe Addai had earlier argued that the absence of a comprehensive cancer centre in Ghana was negatively affecting treatment outcomes, forcing the few patients who could afford it to seek care outside the country.

The Wider Trajectory
Ghana's cancer burden has been rising steadily. Wikipedia's compilation of national data notes that in 2020, 15,802 Ghanaians died from cancer, against roughly 24,000 new cases recorded annually in more recent years.

Breast cancer remains the leading malignancy nationally, accounting for a growing share of cases since at least 2007 [6]. Cervical cancer, meanwhile, claims more than half of the over 3,000 women diagnosed with it each year.

What the Data Demands
Taken together, the 2022 GLOBOCAN figures and the more granular mortality-rate data from GHS point to a consistent diagnosis: Ghana's cancer problem is less about incidence rates comparable to global peers, and more about a system that catches the disease too late and treats it too far from where most patients live.

A liver cancer mortality rate of 90 percent, a prostate cancer mortality rate above 50 percent, and a Volta Region absorbing nearly a fifth of the national burden all point toward the same policy gaps: early detection infrastructure, decentralised specialist care, and sustained public investment beyond fundraising dinners and diaspora appeals.

Whether the Kwaso cancer centre becomes operational on the timeline its backers envision will be one of the clearer tests of whether Ghana's health system can convert awareness of this crisis into survivable outcomes for the roughly 27,000 Ghanaians who will be newly diagnosed with cancer this year.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,

International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. ( USIP)

[email protected]
+233555275880

Sources
DailyGuide Network, "27,385 New Cancer Cases, 17,944 Deaths Recorded," https://dailyguidenetwork.com/27385-new-cancer-cases-17944-deaths-recorded/

Ghana News Agency, "Cancer kills almost 18,000 Ghanaians," https://gna.org.gh/2025/02/cancer-kills-almost-18000-ghanaians/

[3] Wikipedia, "Cancer in Ghana," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_in_Ghana

Ghana News Agency / Ghana Business News, "Ghana records approximately 24,000 cancer cases annually Gunu," https://gna.org.gh/2025/07/ghana-records-approximately-24000-cancer-cases-annually-gunu/

Ghana Business News, "BCI to build Ghana's first Comprehensive Cancer Center costing $100m," https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2024/10/14/bci-to-build-ghanas-first-comprehensive-cancer-center-costing-100m/

Wikipedia, "Cancer in Ghana," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_in_Ghana