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The dynamics of colorectal cancer management in 17 countries

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Abstract

This paper discusses the current care management arrangements for colorectal cancer (CRC) in 16 OECD countries plus the Russian Federation by analysing data sources, the uptake of screening and surveillance, the available capacity in endoscopy services, the treatment pathways in medical treatment, as well as the type and availability of pharmaceutical care. The paper highlights significant variations in practice across the 17 countries. Common themes emerge from each of these practices and standards in terms of political interest in policies and awareness of CRC (both of which need to be enhanced), affordability (in terms of scarcity of resources in some countries and out-of-pocket payments for parts of the overall treatment process), access (in terms of the significant variation that has been observed within and across countries with regard to diagnostics, treatment and certain pharmaceuticals) and quality of CRC services (which may arise due to variations in treatment and pharmaceutical guidelines as well as minimal monitoring). When considering policy options for the future, it is important to, first, improve data collection both within as well as across countries through international co-operation; second, it is critical to have greater national and international support for cancer screening activities proven to be effective and cost-effective; third, endoscopy capacity in individual countries needs to be improved, also allowing more choice to ensure timely diagnosis, regardless of screening activities; fourth, public and political awareness needs to be enhanced as it is the key to improving CRC outcomes; fifth, where appropriate, to give consideration to the principles of equity, human dignity and disease severity, among others, when deciding on the uptake of new (targeted) treatments, rather than base decisions solely on cost-effectiveness criteria; and sixth, to firm up national guidelines including screening, diagnosis, treatment, pharmaceutical treatments and surveillance, with a view to enhancing their timeliness, evidence-base and free access to all.

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Notes

  1. Cancer and CRC incidence and mortality were chosen as proxies for country cancer population burdens. In countries with particularly poor-quality cancer registry data (Hungary, Russia) these estimates may be less accurate; however, for the remaining countries this correction gives an estimate of cancer spending per incident (first year of cancer) and mortality (last year of cancer) when spending is likely to be the highest.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Walter Holland and Richard Sullivan for providing extremely useful comments and insights to earlier versions of the paper, particularly on aspects of screening and surveillance; and to Candida Owusu-Apenten for research assistance. All outstanding errors are our own.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors do not report any conflict of interest associated with this paper.

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  1. Department of Social Policy and LSE Health, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

    Panos Kanavos

  2. LSE Health, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

    Willemien Schurer

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  1. Panos Kanavos
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Correspondence to Panos Kanavos.

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Kanavos, P., Schurer, W. The dynamics of colorectal cancer management in 17 countries. Eur J Health Econ 10 (Suppl 1), 115–129 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-009-0201-2

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