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Cancer cases to increase rapidly worldwide by 2030

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Press Trust of India Doha (Qatar)
Cancer cases worldwide will increase rapidly between 2008 to 2030 with the poorest countries likely to see a 100 per cent rise in the cases, according to a report released at a world health summit here.

The report, released at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) today, predicted that between 2008 to 2030 the incidence of cancer will increase by 65 per cent in high-income countries, 80 per cent in middle-income countries and 100 per cent in the world's poorest countries.

The report titled 'Delivering affordable cancer care: a value change to health systems' provided a roadmap for facilitating patient involvement in clinical decision-making, developing consistent and uniform transit for cancer patients through cost-informed clinical pathways and eliminating of waste in cancer care service systems.
 

It also stressed on developing new costing models for drugs based on a 'pay for results' principle, introducing accountable care reward systems and addressing potentially disruptive technologies associated with genomic medicine.

In the summit, leading cancer specialists from around the globe discussed the increasing burden of worldwide spending on cancer treatment and care.

The delegates were informed that the burden of cancer is only set to intensify with new cancer diagnoses expected to increase by around 16-32 per cent over the next 10 years.

Policy makers were informed of the three root causes of excess spending -- Over-treatment and unnecessary interventions, technology without value and inefficient service delivery.

"Through our work we want to encourage governments, policy makers and healthcare organisations to address the problem of affordability in cancer care and treatment. This is a key and real issue for patients across the world.

"The status quo cannot be maintained when individual and total costs for cancer care are rising dramatically and where we know we could deliver and drive better value," said Professor Robert J S Thomas.

He said that the forum will provide practical solutions that can be put in place which include optimal clinical pathways for patients, which can be costed and evaluated for wasteful interventions and provide benchmarks that can be used in a wide variety of settings to improve value for patients and providers.

'Delivering affordable cancer care' was one of eight reports being presented at WISH 2015 where leading international health experts, policy makers and leaders discussing innovative solutions to some of the most pressing global health challenges.

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First Published: Feb 18 2015 | 8:00 PM IST

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