19 February, 2015

Cancer cases to increase rapidly worldwide by 2030

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.

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com

19.02.2015

Educated women avoid breast screening tests: Lancet

Melbourne: Women who understand the risk of over-detection and over-diagnosis associated with mammography screening are less likely to have a breast screening test, new research has found.

"Mammography screening can reduce breast cancer deaths but most women are unaware that inconsequential disease can also be detected by screening, leading to over-diagnosis and over-treatment," said study author Kirsten McCaffery from the University of Sydney.

Over-detection and over-diagnosis refer to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer that would not have presented clinically during a woman's lifetime.

Such a diagnosis, and the resulting over-treatment, can harm women physically and emotionally.

The study involved 879 women aged 48-50 years. The women who participated in the study had not had mammography in the past two years and did not have a personal or strong family history of breast cancer.

The researchers found that compared to controls, in women provided with decision support containing explanatory and quantitative information about over-detection, significantly fewer women intended to be screened for breast cancer.

The intervention decision aid contained evidence-based information about important outcomes of breast screening over 20 years, compared with no screening -- that is, breast cancer mortality reduction, over-detection, and false positives.

The control version omitted all content about over-detection but was otherwise identical to the intervention decision aid.

The study "underlines the ethical imperative for women to have clear decision support materials so that they can make more informed decisions about whether they want to have a breast screening mammogram," McCaffery added.

The study appeared in the journal Lancet.

Source: www.zeenewsindia.com

19.02.2015

If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything

Marva Collins