The vast majority of cancer cases worldwide are diagnosed in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) each year. However, much of our knowledge about cancer is produced in the United States and Europe. This is in spite of a growing number of collaborative initiatives in oncology between institutions in the West and their counterparts in LMICs. In the same manner as global health, global oncology adopts notions of pluralism and equity. However, countries with limited resources that are unable to attend to their own health problems exhibit characteristics of academic dependency, which include a reliance on Western research agendas and priorities. Postcolonial countries are particularly susceptible to academic dependency due to a number of factors such as language barriers, a sense of intellectual inferiority, persistent orientalist stereotypes, and the 'exoticization' of locally produced knowledge. Additionally, the ability to conduct independent research is severely impeded by the undemocratic priorities of postcolonial governments.