Bringing cancer care to the underserved globally: A challenging problem for which radiation oncology can pioneer novel solutions

摘要

There are times in society in which problems with the descriptor "too hard to solve" can no longer be tolerated. This issue of the Journal contains 9 papers and a provocative editorial by Editor-in-Chief Anthony Zietman addressing radiation therapy for underserved nations. The need for attention to the emerging burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Low- and Lower-Middle Income Countries3 (LMICs) was raised by the 2011 United Nations Declaration (1) and in a variety of recent publications (2-4). The challenge is a complex set of problems that requires a systems approach (5). Indeed, Love, Ginsburg, and I have proposed a framework called "Public Health Oncology" (6), which discusses the gaps and the interrelated social, economic, gender discrimination, corruption, and other issues that must be considered so as to be able to provide affordable cancer care in LMICs, as emphasized by Kerr and Midgley (7). The essence of the public health oncology concept is that there are clear mandates grounded in science for what interventions need to be addressed. These are service and research issues in which radiation oncology can have a key role.