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Cancer Therapy in Developing Countries: The Role of Palliative Care

  • Chapter
Palliative Care in Oncology

Abstract

Most cancers occur in developing countries, with 60 % of cancer cases and 70 % of cancer deaths occurring in Africa, Asia and Central and South America, where the disease is increasingly a public health concerngiven the regions’ populous nature and often deficient preventive and curative oncological approaches and treatment access. Palliative care has often been forced to occupy the service gap left by inadequate oncology services. However, palliative care service provision and patient coverage in developing regionsis at best variable. This chapter discusses the status of palliative care services in Africa, Eastern Europe, India and Latin America, before exploring its role in addressing the needs of patients with non-cancer and cancer diagnoses, and the potentially beneficial emphasis on primary prevention in combination with enhanced palliative care services for patients with a cancer diagnosis as part of an overall cancer control strategy.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Calculated as the number of total deaths from disease requiring palliative care at the end of life multiplied by the percentage pain prevalence – with pain used as a proxy indicator of palliative care need – by disease at the end of life. However, these estimates do not capture the need for palliative care in its entirety, which would include the need from the point of diagnosis, as well as one or two involved caregivers, orphans, vulnerable children, and the bereaved (Connor and Bermedo 2014).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Health Researcher, 459-00621, Village Market, Nairobi, Kenya

    Richard A. Powell MD

  2. Wits Centre for Palliative Care, University of the Witwatersrand, Gauteng Centre of Excellence for Palliative Care, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, PO Bertsham, 2013, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Charmaine L. Blanchard MPhil Pall Med

  3. International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care, 5535 Memorial Dr. Suite F – PMB 509, Houston, Texas, 77007, USA

    Liliana de Lima

  4. Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, 10990 Rice Field Pl, Fairfax Station, Virginia, 22039, USA

    Stephen R. Connor PhD

  5. Pallium India, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

    M. R. Rajagopal MD

  6. Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences Trivandrum, Trivandrum, Kerala, India

    M. R. Rajagopal MD

Authors
  1. Richard A. Powell MD
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  2. Charmaine L. Blanchard MPhil Pall Med
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  3. Liliana de Lima
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  4. Stephen R. Connor PhD
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  5. M. R. Rajagopal MD
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Correspondence to Richard A. Powell MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Palliative Medicine, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany

    Bernd Alt-Epping

  2. Department of Palliative Medicine, University Medical Center, Göttingen, Germany

    Friedemann Nauck

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Powell, R.A., Blanchard, C.L., de Lima, L., Connor, S.R., Rajagopal, M.R. (2015). Cancer Therapy in Developing Countries: The Role of Palliative Care. In: Alt-Epping, B., Nauck, F. (eds) Palliative Care in Oncology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46202-7_15

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