An international task force has been launched to expand the detection and treatment of cancer in less developed countries, where death rates from some cancers can be more than double those in richer nations.

A team of experts led by doctors from Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, hopes that the initiative will do for cancer patients what affordable drug pricing has achieved for people with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, polio, trachoma, and malaria in the developed world.

Felicia Knaul, head of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, says that the task force will help to procure drugs for various cancers at affordable prices, expand the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and improve survival.

Paul Farmer, from Harvard Medical School, who has been involved in building hospitals in developing countries, …