Investing in Cancer Care Saves Lives and Strengthens Economies in Developing World

By 2030 there will likely be 21.6  million new cancer cases a year, almost double the number from just a few years ago, said Dazhu Yang, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Technical Cooperation. “With the ever growing demand for cancer services comes a greater need to invest in radiotherapy as a fundamental component of effective diagnosis, treatment and palliation of cancer,” he said.

Cancer care: smart investment

Money spent on cancer control should be seen as an investment, not a cost, said Alistair McGuire, Professor in Health Economics at the London School of Economics. He cited a recent report published by The Lancet Oncology, which concluded that scaling up radiotherapy capacity from current levels could lead to saving of 26.9 million life-years in low-income and middle-income countries over the lifetime of the patients who received treatment. The expected economic benefits of this investment in radiotherapy would be $365.4 billion, the study said.

Another recent study concluded that cost effective cancer prevention, early detection and treatment strategies could save the lives of up to 3.7 million people per year, most of them in low and middle income countries. The economic value of the productive, healthy years that could be gained is estimated in the range of US $331 billion to $451 billion.

Unfortunately, financing for fighting non-communicable diseases, including cancer, in developing countries is well below actual need, and makes up only a small proportion of all development assistance in health, McGuire said.

Scaling up investment in healthcare and enhanced cancer control programmes will also help address the increasing impoverishment of patients and their families due to loss of household income and exorbitant spending on health expenses many cannot afford, McGuire said.

To address the rising cancer burden, robust and evidence-based fund raising strategies are needed that build on a broad range of funding sources and supportive partnerships, McGuire said. Such options include increasing allocations from general government budgets, social and private health insurance, private donor contributions, foreign assistance and specially targeted efforts to raise revenues from the public such as special taxes and levies.

Mohga Kamal-Yanni, a senior health policy advisor with Oxfam underlined the importance of viewing access to healthcare including to medicines as a fundamental human right. There is stark inequality as many cancer patients in low and middle income countries do not have access to the care they need, she said. While death rates from cancer in developed countries are falling thanks to early diagnosis and treatment, this is not the case in developing countries, where 57 per cent of the world’s cancer cases and 65 per cent of all cancer deaths now occur.

“A recent report of the United Nations Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines highlights the global nature of the access to medicines problem and has called for government action to remedy the incoherence between human rights and intellectual property rules,” she said. “Clearly the world needs to address access to health care including cancer medicines as a human rights issue.”

Tatiana Vidaurre, Head of the National Institute of Neoplasm Diseases (INEN) in Peru, spoke of the assistance her country and institute have received from the IAEA as well as of the new services necessary to cope with the growing cancer burden. Focus on early diagnosis has been key in reducing mortality rates, she said. Following the recommendations of the IAEA’s imPACT review in2014, the institute has scaled up training of medical staff in cancer treatment. “Having equipment is not enough,” she said. “We need to build up our human resources.”

In order to achieve the best outcomes for cancer patients, access to quality and affordable treatment cannot be seen in isolation from a comprehensive cancer control perspective, she added. Engagement and collaboration from multiple international actors, including the IAEA, is crucial in scaling up access to care. “We are providing comprehensive cancer services and coordination through our National Cancer Control Strategy, Plan Esperanza”, she said.

El Salvador’s government has also implemented many of the recommendations stemming from the IAEA imPACT review of its cancer services, said Ambassador Carmen María Gallardo Hernández of El Salvador during the debate. As a result, there is significantly more coordination among its cancer treatment institutions, increasing the effectiveness and quality of care.

During the debate, representatives of several Member States, including France, Japan, Russia, Switzerland and the United States, highlighted the importance of scaling-up access to comprehensive cancer control activities in low- and middle-income countries. They also reiterated their support to the IAEA’s work in this area and called on Member States to enhance their support and increase funding for comprehensive cancer control through the Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT).

Closing the event, Nelly Enwerem-Bromson, Director of the IAEA's PACT Division, emphasized that while the prospect of meeting the SDG target to reduce early deaths to cancer by a third in the next 15 years may seem overwhelming, the global community has started to demonstrate that it was achievable. “We have to act decisively and we have to act now,” she said. “Making sustainable investments to expand comprehensive cancer services, while strengthening health systems is the smart thing to do.”

She highlighted the joint effort required from the global community and national governments to save many more lives from cancer. “Together, we can, and we will deliver.”