Affiliation:
1. MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions St. Michael's Hospital Toronto Ontario Canada
2. Department of Oncology Queen's University Kingston Ontario Canada
3. Department of Family and Community Medicine University of Toronto Toronto Ontario Canada
Abstract
AbstractBackgroundCancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide. Alongside other interventions, access to certain medicines may decrease cancer‐associated mortality. Listing medicines on national essential medicines lists may improve health outcomes. We examine the association between cancer mortality amenable to care and the listing of cancer medicines on national essential medicines lists (NEMLs) of 124 countries.MethodsIn this cross‐sectional study, we determined the number of medicines used to treat eight cancers on NEMLs and used multiple linear regression to analyze the association between cancer health outcome scores and the number of medicines on NEMLs while controlling for GDP. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted using selected medicines.FindingsThe number of cancer medicines on NEMLs was not associated with cancer health outcome scores when GDP was controlled for non‐melanoma skin (p = 0.224), uterine (p = 0.221), breast (p = 0.145), Hodgkin's lymphoma (p = 0.697), colon (p = 0.299), leukemia (p = 0.103), cervical (p = 0.834), and testicular cancers (p = 0.178).InterpretationThere was a weak association between listing medicines for eight cancers in NEMLs and amenable mortality. Further studies are required to explore association between cancer health outcomes and other factors such as actual availability of medicines listed, access to surgeries, accurate diagnosis, radiotherapy, and early detection.
Funder
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Subject
Cancer Research,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging,Oncology
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