Affordable cancer treatments available
More than 2.4 million cancer deaths could be avoided each year in developing countries using prevention and treatment interventions that are affordable and that could be made widely available, according to a new report. And deaths due to children’s cancers are among those that could be curtailed most easily. Costs of treatment for certain common cancers are as little as $100 per course of treatment in developing nations. Even more disturbing, low-cost pain relief medications remain largely inaccessible to patients in developing countries, meaning that most people with cancer worldwide suffer tremendous pain — needlessly — before they die, the report’s authors say. These findings come from the report, “Closing the Cancer Divide: A Blueprint to Expand Access in Low and Middle Income Countries,” being released today by an international group of experts organized by the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries (GTF.CCC), and...