CANCER CONTROL OPPORTUNITIES IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
Frank A. Sloan and Hellen Gelband, Editors
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This study was supported by Contract No. NOI-OD-4-2139 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Cancer Institute and Grant No. 71685 between the National Academy of Sciences and the American Cancer Society. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Institute of Medicine (U.S.). Committee on Cancer Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.
Cancer control opportunities in low- and middle-income countries / Committee on Cancer Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Board on Global Health ; Frank A. Sloan and Hellen Gelband, editors.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-0-309-10384-8 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 0-309-10384-3 (pbk.)
1. Cancer—Developing countries—Prevention. 2. Cancer—Economic aspects—Developing countries. 3. Cancer—Prevention—International cooperation. I. Sloan, Frank A. II. Gelband, Hellen. III. Title.
[DNLM: 1. Neoplasms—prevention & control. 2. Developing Countries. 3. Health Care Rationing. 4. International Cooperation. 5. Neoplasms—economics. QZ 200 I43845 2006]
RA645.C3I55 2006
362.196′9940091724—dc22
2006100723
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COMMITTEE ON CANCER CONTROL IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME COUNTRIES
FRANK A. SLOAN (Chair),
Center for Health Policy, Law & Management, Duke University, Durham, NC
DAVID CLARK,
International Observatory on End of Life Care, Institute for Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England
HAILE T. DEBAS,
Global Health Sciences, University of California at San Francisco
ELMER E. HUERTA,
Cancer Preventorium, Washington Cancer Institute at Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC
PRABHAT JHA,
University of Toronto Centre for Global Health Research, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada
DAVID E. JORANSON,
Pain and Policy Studies Group, University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, Madison
RANJIT KAUR,
Reach to Recovery International and Breast Cancer Welfare Association, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
KATHLEEN HARDIN MOONEY,
University of Utah College of Nursing, Salt Lake City
TWALIB A. NGOMA,
Ocean Road Cancer Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
D.M. PARKIN,
Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, Oxford University, England
RICHARD PETO,
Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, Oxford University, England
YOUCEF M. RUSTUM,
Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY
BHADRASAIN VIKRAM,
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria (at IAEA until June 2006)
Consultant
IAN MAGRATH,
International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, Brussels, Belgium
Staff
HELLEN GELBAND, Study Director
PATRICK KELLEY, Director,
Board on Global Health
ROGER HERDMAN, Director,
National Cancer Policy Forum
PENNY SMITH, Research Associate (until October 2005)
ALLISON BRANTLEY, Project Assistant (since October 2005)
BOARD ON GLOBAL HEALTH
MARGARET HAMBURG (Chair),
Nuclear Threat Initiative, Washington, DC
GEORGE ALLEYNE,
Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC
YVES BERGEVIN,
United Nations Population Fund, New York
DONALD BERWICK (IOM Council liaison),
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
JO IVEY BOUFFORD (IOM Foreign Secretary),
New York University, New York
DAVID CHALLONER,
University of Florida, Gainesville
CIRO DE QUADROS,
Sabin Vaccine Institute, Washington, DC
SUE GOLDIE,
Harvard University School of Public Health, Boston, MA
RICHARD GUERRANT,
University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville
GERALD KEUSCH,
Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA
JEFFREY KOPLAN,
Emory University, Atlanta, GA
SHEILA LEATHERMAN,
University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Chapel Hill
MICHAEL MERSON,
Duke University Global Health Institute, Durham, NC
MARK ROSENBERG,
Task Force for Child Survival and Development, Decatur, GA
PHILLIP RUSSELL,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Eduardo Cazap, Sociedad Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Oncologia Medica, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Susan J. Curry, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health
Silvia Franceschi, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
Robert A. Hiatt, University of California at San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center
Edward Katongole-Mbidde, Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda
Donald Kenkel, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Gerald T. Keusch, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA
Lawrence S. Lewin, Chevy Chase, MD
Shahla Masood, University of Florida, Jacksonville
M.R. Rajagopal, Pallium India, Thiruvananthapuram, India
Raul C. Ribeiro, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
Roberto Rivera-Luna, Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, Mexico City, Mexico
Sylvia C. Robles, The World Bank, Washington, DC
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by David R. Challoner, University of Florida, Gainesville. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Preface
In high-income countries, cancer has received considerable public attention because it is one of the major causes of mortality, morbidity, and disease burden. In middle- and particularly in low-income countries, cancer has received less public attention because other diseases, especially infectious diseases, have historically been far more pressing. Although less prominent in relative terms, as this report documents, cancer is a major burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMCs) today.
In the future, it is inevitable that cancer will be a more important issue in LMCs. As the competing risk of infectious disease declines, major chronic diseases, including cancer, will move to the forefront as contributors to poor health. Furthermore, to the extent that LMCs adopt the health behaviors of populations in high-income countries, the incidence of chronic diseases such as cancer will increase.
If cancer is to be an even greater health problem in the future, given other pressing social priorities, why should LMCs be concerned about it now? First, it is already a greater burden than is widely appreciated. Second, establishing capacity for cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in a country takes time. Third, some cancers can be prevented, and the latency period from the cause to the development of cancer can be several decades. Tobacco use is a case in point. The vast majority of tobacco use is initiated before age 21. Yet most of the deleterious effects of such use occur after age 50. A message of this report is that countries can implement effective policies for reducing tobacco use in their countries, and they can do this rather inexpensively.
This report is about “opportunities.” The committee’s concept of op-
portunity is broad, ranging from data collection and planning to resource-level-appropriate interventions. We did not use cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis to rank individual projects. There is likely to be important variation in benefits relative to costs between low- and middle-income countries, and within countries in each category.
The concept of “resource-level-appropriateness” is central to this report. For the lowest income countries, where most people first present to the health care system with late-stage cancers, cure is usually impossible. Yet much more can be done than at present to promote palliative therapies to improve the quality of life of those who have incurable cancers, particularly near the end of life. At the other end of the spectrum is cancer prevention, which includes educating the public about what they can do to avoid cancer. Some approaches to prevention identified in the report are not costly and are within the ability of lower income countries to finance, sometimes with external assistance.
Investments in cancer diagnosis and treatment should vary depending on resources available in the country. A temptation that high-income countries should resist is focusing on exporting the latest, most expensive technologies that may (or may not!) be appropriate for wealthy countries, but for which alternatives exist that may be preferred in low-, and in some cases, middle-income countries. Partnerships are needed between high-income and other countries in developing resource-appropriate strategies. These partnerships may be government to government, but there is great potential for private partnerships, involving, for example, academic health centers in high-income countries and delivery sites in low- or middle-income countries. The report describes such opportunities. We hope it will prove a valuable resource, not only for the report’s sponsors—the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society—for considering how best to use existing knowledge to develop strategies for cancer control that recognize differences among countries in both resources and health care services delivery.
Frank A. Sloan
J. Alexander McMahon Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Economics
Duke University
Project Consultants and Commissioned Authors
Benjamin O. Anderson, University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle
Michael Barton, University of New South Wales, Australia
Vinona Bhatia, University of California at San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center
Robert W. Carlson, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Mariana De Santis, National University of Cordoba, Argentina
Jorge Eisenchlas, Universidad del Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Alexandru E. Eniu, Cancer Institute I. Chiricuta, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Michael Frommer, University of Sydney, Australia
Nigel Gray, Victoria, Australia
Ednin Hamzah, Hospis Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Diwani Msemo, Ocean Road Cancer Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Jesmin Shafiq, University of New South Wales, Australia
Leslie Sullivan, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
Tatiana Vidaurre Rojas, Instituto Especializado de Enfermedades Neoplásicas, Lima, Peru
John Ziegler, University of California at San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center