Access to essential cancer medicines unequal across countries

Date:
September 21, 2021
Source:
King's College London
Summary:
Patients in most countries of the world do not have access to basic
cancer medicines, according to new research. Their article asked
oncologists worldwide to list the most important cancer medicines
and to describe whether patients could access these medicines in
their home country.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Patients in most countries of the world do not have access to basic
cancer medicines, according to new research from King's College London
Global Oncology Group Professor Richard Sullivan and collaborators at
Kingston University and the World Health Organization. Their paper,
published in The Lancet Oncology, asked oncologists worldwide to list
the most important cancer medicines and to describe whether patients
could access these medicines in their home country.


==========================================================================
The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated and released an
Essential Medicines List (EML) every two years since 1977. This list
helps policy-makers worldwide prioritize which medicines to provide
for patients.

Professor Sullivan and the international team surveyed 948 frontline
cancer doctors from 82 countries to learn which cancer medicines they considered the most important for patient care The research team found
that the most important medicines identified by oncologists are primarily
older inexpensive chemotherapy and hormone medicines.

With one exception, all of the top 20 high-priority cancer medicines
are already included on the EML. Oncologists consider these medicines
to be the most important because they have large benefits for patients
across many common cancers.

15 of 20 medications are common to all three top 20 lists, however
although the list for low-income and lower-middle-income countries does
not include any immunotherapy agents and the only hormone therapy listed
is tamoxifen, the lists for upper-middle-income countries and high-income countries include and newer hormonal treatments.

The paper also reports that in most health systems, patients are
unable to afford even these basic cancer medicines. In lower and
middle-income countries, most patients face major financial barriers to accessing anticancer medications -- even older, generic, and inexpensive chemotherapy drugs. Financial barriers also exist in many high-income countries.

Professor Richard Sullivan, from King's College London, said: "Our study demonstrates that the most important cancer medicines are not sufficiently prioritized by many government health systems. This leads to limited
access to even the most fundamental regimens for cancer care. The primary reason why medicines are not available to patients is because they are
not affordable.

This is tragic as most of these medicines are older generic drugs and
provide major benefits to patients. These problems are most pressing in low-middle and upper-middle income countries where the rates of cancer
are most rapidly escalating" the researchers found.

He added: "There is an urgent need for global and country-level
policy action to ensure patients with cancer globally
have access to affordable high priority effective medicines." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by King's_College_London. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Adam Fundytus, Manju Sengar, Dorothy Lombe, Wilma Hopman, Matthew
Jalink,
Bishal Gyawali, Dario Trapani, Felipe Roitberg, Elisabeth G E De
Vries, Lorenzo Moja, Andre' Ilbawi, Richard Sullivan, Christopher
M Booth.

Access to cancer medicines deemed essential by oncologists in 82
countries: an international, cross-sectional survey. The Lancet
Oncology, 2021; DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00463-0 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210921125121.htm

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