Two new studies conducted by researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States suggest that premature deaths caused by potentially treatable forms of cancer could be prevented if the concerns about the shortage of radiotherapy and safer surgery are addressed accordingly.
The new reports, which are both featured in the journal The Lancet Oncology, urge stakeholders to place greater emphasis and investment in these services, especially in developing countries.
In the first study, researchers in the U.S. discovered that close to nine out of 10 people in poor and less developed countries do not have access to radiotherapy.
While the findings showed that only 40 to 60 percent of patients with cancer in developing nations have access to this important treatment, the researchers pointed out that the issue with availability is not limited to these countries.
High-earning nations, such as Australia, Canada and the UK, have also been found to have inadequate numbers of trained staff, equipment and facilities for radiotherapy.
Rifat Atun, a professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the authors of the study, said there is a popular misconception that the costs of radiotherapy treatment has made it accessible only to those living in rich countries. However, he said that this is not necessarily the case.
The researchers estimated that cancer patients in developing countries who are in need of radiotherapy could be given access to the treatment for as only $97 billion by 2035. They said that this could result in 27 million life years saved, and provide countries with $278 billion to US $365 billion worth of economic benefits in the next two decades.
In the second study, researchers in the UK found that while more than 80 percent of the 15 million cancer patients in the world will require surgery this year, only less than a quarter of them will be able to receive safe and inexpensive surgical care.
Richard Sullivan, a professor at King's College London's Institute of Cancer Policy, said that surgery is often treated as low priority because of financial constraints.
He explained that the competing health priorities and financial woes of many developing countries cause governments to place low priority on much needed surgical services within their national cancer plans.
Sullivan added that in their recent estimates, less than one in 20 cancer patients in low-income nations and around one in five cancer patients in middle-income nations have access to even basic forms of cancer treatments.
To help provide better access to radiotherapy for patients in poorer countries, the researchers in the first study suggest that accessibility to the treatment could be increased by 2035 by investing as much as $184 billion in the service, or by improving its efficiency at a cost of $97 billion.
Meanwhile, those in the second study point to a shortage of cancer surgeons in eight out of 10 countries. The researchers call on for an increase in training of surgeons in order to provide basic cancer surgery to patients, as well as to train additional surgical and gynecological oncologists.
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