Access to essential cancer medicines unequal across different countries
Patients in most countries of the world do not have access to basic cancer medicines
Patients in most countries of the world do not have access to basic cancer medicines , according to new research from King ’ s College London , Kingston University London , and the World Health Organization .
Their paper , published in The Lancet Oncology , asked oncologists worldwide to list the most important cancer medicines and describe whether patients could access them in their home country .
As a reference , the researchers used the WHO ’ s Essential Medicines List , which has been updated every two years since 1977 . The list helps policymakers worldwide prioritise which medicines to provide for patients .
Dr Richard Sullivan of King ’ s College ’ s Global Oncology Group and the international team surveyed 948 frontline cancer doctors from 82 countries to learn which cancer medicines they considered the most important for patient care .
The paper reported that in most health systems patients were unable to afford even the most basic cancer medicines . In lower and middle-income countries , most patients faced major financial barriers in accessing anti-cancer medications , even those that were older , generic and inexpensive chemotherapy drugs . Financial barriers also existed in many high-income countries .
“ The primary reason why medicines are not available to patients is because they are not affordable . This is tragic as most of these medicines are older generic drugs and provide major benefits to patients . These problems are most pressing in low-middle and uppermiddle income countries where the rates of cancer are most rapidly escalating ,” Professor Sullivan said on the launch of the report .
Rapid counting of T cells can help predict patient response to cancer therapy
Scientists have developed a new tool that can rapidly estimate the number of T cells in a cancerous tumour
Scientists in London have developed a new tool that can rapidly estimate the number of immune cells in a cancerous tumour , enabling them to more accurately predict a patient ’ s response to immunotherapy . The findings give hope that more targeted and effective cancer therapies will be identified .
As part of the Cancer Research UK-funded TRACERx project , scientists analysed DNA sequencing data from cancerous tumours in an attempt to quantify the fraction of T cells , which are produced by the body ’ s immune system , within a sample .
“ DNA sequencing is frequently performed on cancer patient ’ s tumours for patient stratification and to understand how a cancer has developed ,” explained corresponding author Dr Nicholas McGranahan of the University College London Cancer Institute in Nature .
“ Estimation of immune cells , which are important for controlling cancers , influencing patient survival and guiding treatment , has in the past not been possible to estimate solely from DNA sequencing data . We aimed to explore whether we could develop a novel method to elucidate immune cells directly from DNA sequencing , without the need for more data ,” he wrote .
DNA sequencing allows scientists to see the evolutionary history of how individual tumours have developed . In the current study , the researchers developed a tool to “ look back ” and calculate levels of T cell “ VDJ recombination ”, a process through which T cells are reassembled or altered and enabled to identify and attack invaders .
Specifically , they found a “ signal ” that enabled them to estimate accurately the number of T cells present in the tumour and to predict a patient ’ s response to immunotherapy .
28 OCTOBER 2021 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com