The 3rd Cancer Plan unveiled tomorrow Tuesday by the President of the Republic should revolve around the fight against inequalities, both societal and territorial.
“Cancer in France is the pathology in which health inequalities are very marked compared to other pathologies and compared to other European countries,” pointed out last August the orientation report for the 3th Cancer plan. The fight against social and territorial inequalities should therefore be the main priority of this Plan covering the period 2014-2018 which will be unveiled tomorrow by François Hollande.
Set up inequality indicators
To reduce this social divide, Professor Jean-Paul Vernant, author of the orientation report, had therefore drawn up recommendations. Thus, it proposed the establishment of indicators to measure and control these social or geographic inequalities. A reduction that could be followed, for example, by an indicator such as that of premature cancer mortality.
On the other hand, these experts felt that the primary prevention of cancer should be significantly rethought, to address, with appropriate and effective methods, groups at risk and vulnerable populations. Whether for breast cancer screening or colorectal cancer screening, all the surveys show significant disparities depending on the region, age and socio-economic characteristics. Finally, a final indicator could be that of survival inequalities. Since survival results from care, by better estimating survival, while integrating social and professional data, it would be easier to identify inequalities in care.
Innovations at the right price
“ Faced with an increasingly important technicality, care should be taken that therapeutic innovations do not provide an opportunity to accentuate social and territorial inequalities which are already too great, ”specified when submitting his orientation report. Prof. Vernant. While welcoming the development and progress of the teams of cancer researchers during the two previous plans, they also plead for the “public authorities to take their responsibilities and negotiate with the industrialists so that these innovations are marketed at their fair price. On the other hand, the report specified that access to care continued to pose a problem in our health system, in particular because of excess fees, out-of-pocket expenses, but also delays in diagnosis or treatment. .
In December 2012, François Hollande recalled that “the risk of dying” from cancer between the ages of 30 and 65 was twice as high among workers as among the liberal professions. It remains to be seen whether the announcements of the President of the Republic tomorrow will really lead to a concrete improvement in this situation.
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