The lifestyles in many developing countries in the tropics are in a state of transition from traditional to “modern,” with its associated industrialization, urbanization, and cultural readjustment. Infectious diseases are giving way to noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, adult-onset diabetes, cancers, trauma, and noninfectious respiratory diseases, as major causes of morbidity and premature mortality [11].

The cancer transition can be regarded as an extension or a completion of Omran’s theory on epidemiological transition. In analogy with the third stage of epidemiological transition—a shift from infectious to noncommunicable diseases—the theory of cancer transition sees a shift from a predominance of cancers linked to infections to cancers associated with risk factors that are mainly noninfectious and possibly related to a so-called western lifestyle [12].