A report says that there is a huge difference in the cancer treatments received by people residing in different developed countries. There is a wide gap between the developed and the underdeveloped countries as far as access to modern cancer treatments is concerned.
The countries having the best access to the latest cancer treatments are United States, France, Switzerland and Austria, according to the study.
Co-researcher Dr Nils Wilking, clinical oncologist at the Karolinska Institute said:
Progress in medical treatments has meant that over half of the patients diagnosed with cancer will now be ‘cured’ or die from other causes. However, these benefits are only realized once the drugs get to the patients. The study examined the access to 67 innovative cancer drugs in 25 countries.
The report is prepared by Dr Nils Wilking and Dr Bengt Jönsson, director of the Centre for Health Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics. The same authors had published an identical report in 2005 and now report that France has replaced Spain in the top four nations with the maximum access to cancer treatments.
The report added that the countries with the worst record in access to cancer treatments include New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic, South Africa and the UK.
As far as cancer survival rates were concerned, France showed the highest five-year survival rate in Europe at 71% for women and 53% for men, compared with 53% and 43% in the UK respectively though the UK government said it had speeded up the drug approval process. UK is placed at the bottom.
Dr Jonsson said:
It is our hope that this report will inspire policy-makers and decision-makers to take action to address these imbalances so that access to new innovative cancer drugs does not become dependent on the patient’s country of residence. Countries need to address urgently how they are going to accommodate newer drugs into health care systems and pay for them.
The report appeared in the journal Annals of Oncology.
