Striving Towards Equitable Cancer Care: The Oncology Community’s Mission to Leave No Country or Patient Behind.

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The cancer community strives to leave no country or patient behind

Chicago (USA), June 3 (EFE).- Three pillars make up the mission of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the main one in the sector: to end cancer through research, education and a equitable care. Points shared by the rest of the oncology community, which intends not to leave any patient or country behind. ASCO’s annual conference in Chicago, which opens Friday and closes Tuesday, sees it as a “moral obligation” to overcome inequalities. The director of the US National Cancer Institute, Mónica Bertagnolli, pointed out in the plenary session this Saturday that “there is nothing more tragic” than someone cannot be cured, not because there are no means to do so, but because they are not within their reach. “We have the knowledge. We must involve everyone. We still lack the commitment to achieve this goal,” she said. Cancer is in fact one of the leading causes of death in the world, responsible for almost 10 million deaths in 2020, approximately one in six, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization. The most common are those of the chest and lungs, followed by those of the colon and rectum and the prostate. Oncologist Miriam Mutebi, president-elect of the African Association for Cancer Research and Training (Aortic), highlighted today in a presentation that 70% of cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, countries to which only 5% of the resources spent on cancer go. This, coupled in certain countries with stigma and the use of alternative therapies, results in poor patient outcomes. The solution, in her words, involves a joint effort. The Coalition for Access to Oncological Medicines (ATOM) is part of this effort, an initiative launched in 2022 and which today had a leading role in congress. It seeks to generate synergies, improve existing models through innovative mechanisms and involve people from different sectors to break down access barriers to these drugs. For the economist specialized in health Felicia Marie Knaul, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Americas and president of the Mexican NGO Tómatelo a Pecho in the fight against cancer, in this fight against inequalities it is a priority to get health spending to be financed through social security. The worst way to do it, she stressed, is that when the patient needs the service, they have to pay out of pocket: “For the patient it is an unbearable pressure,” she explained to EFE. Cancer care arrived at the pandemic with a “significant lag,” she says. With the pandemic it was accentuated, “not because there was no cancer, but because people did not go (to the doctor) and it was not detected”, and after covid-19, addressing this delay should not be delayed. A BETTER DOCTOR-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP ASCO has oriented its focus this year towards a better relationship between doctors and patients to promote more accurate diagnoses and a better medical experience. It is a paradigm shift, according to Knaul, because before, patients “did not have a chair at the table where they talked about how to make health systems more efficient.” The president of that American society, Eric Winer, stressed this Saturday in the plenary session that one does not heal only with science, but also with empathy. “Should a tobacco addict with cancer be treated differently than a non-smoker? Everyone should receive our best care no matter what brought them to the clinic,” he said. Communication, he added, is key. “We have to get closer to patients to understand what they need us to prioritize to improve their lives. We have to listen to them. It is also crucial for our well-being as oncologists. And we owe them the foot on the research accelerator,” he said. In this line, ASCO is being the scene not only of the latest scientific advances, but also of methods that promote a more direct exchange between health workers and patients. For example, Ilana Graetz is co-author of a study that tested an “app” that sent messages and reminders to women with breast cancer about the endocrine therapy they were undergoing, which has a high dropout rate due to side effects. Some 300 people participated between November 2018 and June 2021. Although this strategy failed to increase their adherence to therapy, it did record improvements in their mental health status. “And that in itself is encouraging,” the professor of Health Management and Policy tells EFE, convinced that these tools should be generalized in consultation. Marta Garde (c) EFE Agency