develop=have?

well, to some extent, in this context:
develop=get to have, start having
not just simply
have

Flora TangThe World Health Organization says almost half a million women each year develop cervical cancer. More than half of them die from it.

Flora,

Are you asking if the sentence should be "have developed"?. I persoanlly think that either present or present perfect tense will both work in this context.

Goodman

Flora TangThe World Health Organization says almost half a million women each year develop cervical cancer. More than half of them die from it.

Flora,

Are you asking if the sentence should be "have developed"?. I persoanlly think that either present or present perfect tense will both work in this

Hi,

For a disease, 'develop' means it comes into existence, it begins to appear.

Best wishes, Clive

CliveFor a disease, 'develop' means it comes into existence, it begins to appear.

Yes, but in this case the subject is the patients, not the disease.

The patients develop cancer
means IMO
The patients start having cancer
if one wants to keep the same subject and not change to
The cancer come

Hi,

Yes, I meant The patients start having cancer come into existence, they start having cancer begin to appear. You could say The patients' bodies start to 'make' cancer.

I'm not trying to write a nice sentence, I'm just trying to explain the concept behind the word 'develop'.

The patients' bodies start to 'make' cancer.

That's actually a rather accurate statement because from a medical standpoint it's really the patients' bodies that make cancer.

So:

"...almost half a million women each year develop cervical cancer." means that these women (that is, their bodies) start making cancer.