Accelerating access: Delivering equitable care across the cancer continuum
Every year, cancer claims the lives of 10 million people despite many forms of the disease being curable when people have access to local health systems that can quickly diagnose and treat them. However, not everyone is impacted equally and low- and middle-income countries carry most of the global cancer burden, accounting for 70% of cancer deaths.
The disparity is even more striking for preventable forms of the disease such as cervical cancer, with 90% of new cases and deaths occurring in LMICs where health systems often lack the resources and personnel needed to diagnose and treat cancer before it’s too late. Cancer rates in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, are projected to almost double between 2020 and 2040 and there’s an estimated shortage of 50,000 cancer care professionals currently facing LMICs.
Resource-constrained health systems are often unable to provide citizens with lifesaving, cancer-preventing vaccination and screening services. While an effective HPV vaccine against cervical cancer exists, only 25% of low-income countries have introduced the HPV vaccine in national immunization schedules, compared to over 85% of high-income countries. And for patients who are diagnosed too late, adequate care across the cancer continuum is often limited and many patients with late-stage cancer do not have access to the treatment, pain relief, and psychosocial support they need. High-quality drugs and diagnostics are often hard to come by, and the ones that are available are often of poor quality and unaffordable to most patients, making cancer twice as lethal in LMICs compared to the United States.
According to The Lancet Oncology Commission, there’s an urgent need to implement and expand universal health coverage to include cancer care and ensure equitable access to health services, as well as routine screening and early detection programs for prevalent cancers such as cervical, breast, and prostate cancer.
This event, hosted by Devex and MSD on the occasion of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, will explore what’s needed to ensure access to cancer care in LMICs and what’s needed to accelerate efforts to ensure equitable access to lifesaving prevention and screening services.
Join us in New York or online as we discuss how to deliver equitable care across the cancer continuum.