Runcie Chidebe: Advancing Equitable Access to Care for Advanced Breast Cancer

Runcie Chidebe, Executive Director at Project PINK BLUE, shared on LinkedIn about a paper he co-authored with colleagues, published in The Breast:

“In 2021, I authored an opinion piece for the Springer Nature Research Communities, and I asked the question ‘Why are metastatic cancer patients dying too early in Africa and other LMICs?’ I asked this question because I have been attending the Advanced Breast Cancer Consensus Conference since 2017, and I have met many advanced breast cancer (ABC) patients from high-income countries (HICs) who are doing well and have continued to do so to date. But patients with ABC from Nigeria, Africa, and LMICs rarely live above five or even seven years.

The answer to this question, and possibly more, is enshrined in this new article ‘Improving equitable access to comprehensive care for people with advanced breast cancer: a global expert review and call-to-action for 2025–2035 (Goal 9).’

I am thrilled to have contributed to this very important work with esteemed scientists from around the world as part of the ABC Global Alliance’s Global Decade Report. We conducted a 10-year analysis from 2015 to 2025, and our findings revealed the following:

1.  Treatment advances are linked to rising drug costs.
2. Diagnostic barriers and challenges delay timely access to ABC treatment.
3. High out-of-pocket costs remain a major obstacle to access to ABC treatment in LMICs.
4.  Radiation oncology capacity increased in Africa, but widespread access is still lacking.
5. Clinical trials are a vital pathway for accessing innovative therapies in ABC, yet global participation remains persistently low.

Our recommendations are as follows:

• Work with policymakers to ensure universal coverage and access for ABC diagnostics and treatments under public health systems.
• Ensure access to high-quality pathology evaluation of the tumor biology, and effective imaging is available to and covered for all patients with ABC.
• Improve continuous financial support for people with ABC by expanding financial assistance programs and navigation, and increasing awareness of financial rights and available services.
• Improve access to diagnostics, treatments, and clinical trials by removing additional financial barriers, particularly across diverse ethnic, geographical, and socioeconomic groups.
• Fight growing inequalities in access to ABC care by focusing on the needs of underserved groups, across and between countries.

Read the full manuscript.

Special thanks to Fatima Cardoso for leading this very important work. Please repost and share your feedback using the comment section. Thanks.”

Title: Improving equitable access to comprehensive care for people with advanced breast cancer: a global expert review and call-to-action for 2025–2035 (Goal 9)

Authors: Alexandru Eniu, Runcie C.W. Chidebe, Peter Vuylsteke, Mariana Chavez-MacGregor, Frederique Penault-Llorca, Gilberto Lopes, Matti Aapro, Silvia Neciosup, Nisha Pillay, Alexandra Lewis, Georgia Attfield, Fatima Cardoso

Read The Full Article in The Breast.

More posts featuring Runcie Chidebe.