Vanguard Neurologist

From Bloomberg.com:
Cancer cases may surge 45 percent by 2030, amid an aging and racially diverse population that will require better access to health care, according to a study.

U.S. cancer cases will reach 2.3 million a year in 2030 due mostly to the aging of the population, because cancer occurs more commonly in older people, according to the research published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The number of cases is forecast to increase by 67 percent in the elderly, and to grow 99 percent in minorities driven by a comparable rise in their population.

The expected increase in cancer may be particularly hard for uninsured people, who have lower survival rates from malignancies compared with the insured because of poor access to screening, diagnosis and treatment, the study authors said. An accompanying policy statement in the journal called for actions to bridge “the profound divide in our nation” between people who have access to up-to-date medical care and those who don’t.

“These are eye-popping statistics,” said Richard Schilsky, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in a telephone press conference. The society is drafting legislation to provide Medicare-style insurance coverage to any American with cancer.

The report was led by Benjamin Smith of Lackland Air Force Base, based on U.S. Census Bureau data and cancer data from a federal health epidemiology database.

‘Huge Problem’

Derek Raghavan of the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center, said the numbers are projections. “These trends are strong and inescapable. We have a huge problem. Like global warming, it’s here, it’s happening now,” Raghavan said in a telephone news conference today.

“We’ve made progress in cure rates but we’ll see that slip away from our grasp if we don’t provide adequate health care for the disadvantaged,” he said.

Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer society, said cancer care needs to be available to “a lot of people suffering out there who don’t need to be suffering.” Brawley is an oncologist and co-author of the policy statement that accompany the journal study.

Even with a century of knowledge that surgery can cure local breast cancer, Brawley said studies show that 7 percent of black women don’t get treatment compared with 2 percent of white patients because they are more likely uninsured, “scared and have trouble getting to the doctor.”

Similarly Hispanics, Asian Pacific Islanders and poor whites in mountain areas can fall through the safety net, Raghavan said.

Call for Coverage

Brawley and the cancer society have called for universal health care coverage to heal disparities in care.

Both cancer organization announced a platform of measures to increase assistance to minority doctors, and educational programs to help doctors improve cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and care for underserved groups.