Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 3)

Volume  3,  Cancer,  presents  the  complex  patterns  of  cancer  incidence  and death around the world and evidence on effective and cost-effective ways to control cancers. The DCP3 evaluation of cancer will indicate where cancer treatment  is  ineffective  and  wasteful,  and  offer  alternative  cancer  care packages that are cost-effective and suited to low-resource settings. Main messages from the volume include:

• Quality matters in all aspects of cancer treatment and palliation.
• Cancer registries that track incidence, mortality, and survival, paired with systems to capture causes of death are important to understanding the national cancer burden and the effect of interventions over  time.
• Effective  interventions  exist  at  a  range  of  prices.  Adopting “resource appropriate" measures which allow the most effective treatment for  the  greatest  number  of  people  will  be  advantageous to countries.
• Prioritizing resources toward early stage and curable cancers is likely to have the greatest health impact in low income settings.
• Research prioritization is no longer just a global responsibility.Providing cancer treatment requires adequate  numbers  of  trained healthcare  professionals  and  infrastructure beyond  what  is  available  in  most  LMICs,  especially  low  income  countries. Careful patient monitoring is a requirement of good quality cancer care and this often involves laboratory tests in addition to clinical examination. Even if financing were immediately available to build or expand a cancer control system, reaching capacity will take many years.