Earlier this month, I had the privilege of participating in AstraZeneca’s Redefining Cancer Care: Accelerating Change Together Oncology Summit at Expo 2020 Dubai, an event which united the global oncology community behind one common goal: to improve equitable access to treatment and care for people living with cancer.
Speaking at the Summit were world renowned experts whose diverse perspectives on the future of cancer care helped to challenge traditional thinking in oncology. I was honored to be part of this lively discussion and wanted to share a few takeaways which I hope will inspire more individuals and organizations to support our efforts to transform the way cancer is diagnosed and treated:
- Escalating our level of urgency for cancer to be on par with the pandemic is vital. We learned firsthand during the pandemic how an immediate and coordinated response is needed to overcome a global health challenge. We need to apply the same sense of urgency towards curing cancer.?As my colleague Pelin Incesu said during the Summit, “The pandemic created a huge backlog of cancer patients and now the oncology community and governments are advocating for early screening and prevention. The next step is to maintain this sense of urgency and also increase healthcare spending, especially in low-to-middle income countries. We need to be disruptive. We need to bolder. We need to be faster.”
- ?Prioritizing early screening, detection and intervention in cancer will save lives. Ahead of the Summit, I had the opportunity to visit a world-class cancer hospital, VPS Healthcare in Abu Dhabi, to meet with leading oncologists in the UAE. We had the opportunity to learn about the challenges of screening women for breast cancer in the region and what innovative techniques are being used?to boost screening numbers and improve precision medicine with new technologies for those diagnosed. With many countries reporting disruptions to cancer screening services during the pandemic, it was reassuring to see a greater emphasis on early screening to give people living with cancer the best possible chance of surviving their disease.
- ?Although the local context may be different, many?barriers to achieving optimal cancer care are the same around the world. As a global cancer community, we share the same vision of providing better treatment and care for everyone affected by cancer, no matter who they are or where they live. And on this trip I was struck by how similar many of the challenges are – despite differences in local healthcare systems, or infrastructure. When it comes down to it, delivering the best cancer care for underserved populations is about investing in screening to catch disease early, increasing capacity for biomarker testing so that patients can get personalized medical treatment and improving access to medicines. One thing that stuck with me were comments made by Senator Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary of Health for Kenya, in his opening address. He acknowledged the cancer burden in Kenya, with late-stage diagnosis having huge financial and societal implications, and reminded us, “There may be Third World economies, but there is no such thing as Third World people. We are all First World people and deserve access to First World treatment.” His perspective reminds us that we are united by a shared vision and that we need to update national cancer policies, galvanizing governments to increase healthcare spending and building local education and capacity for screening and diagnosis – in order to improve outcomes for all people living with cancer wherever they reside.
- ?Collaborating remains critical to working towards cure. At the Summit, we proudly launched Accelerating Change Together (ACT) for Cancer Care, a global coalition which seeks to drive earlier screening and detection, remove barriers to precision medicine and improve equitable access to innovative treatment and care. Partners and advisors in the coalition include G42 Healthcare and Union of International Cancer Control (UICC) respectively, and we are looking to bring on additional partners to drive forward innovative reforms in cancer policy that address these issues. UICC’s Dr. Cary Adams joined the Summit panel discussion and reflected on the importance of collaboration, sharing, “I don’t think there’s a particular country, non-governmental organization or private sector company which can solve the cancer burden. We have a shared ambition to elevate the patient voice, address some of the barriers to screening and address the inequalities that exist in cancer care.” Through partnerships like ACT for Cancer Care, we can stop one health crisis from fueling another and redefine the future of cancer care.?
- Enabling a healthcare system that can harness innovation is critical. During the Summit, I was struck by Prof. Walter Ricciardi’s sentiment of having “Star Wars technology in a Flintstones managed way.” As our understanding of the science of cancer evolves, so does the way that we can manage and treat it, but healthcare systems are not keeping at pace with the development of new technologies, including biomarker testing and the routine use of precision medicine. We are also at the cusp of a fundamental paradigm shift in how we can harness the power of data to drive better research, develop better medicines and provide better care. In order to do so, healthcare systems need to evolve, and as Eric Lefkofsky highlighted, we need to better utilize the wealth of data being generated, create an environment that will enable us to do things differently and allow disruption to happen. This will help to ensure the future sustainability for healthcare systems around the world.
It was a tremendously insightful week in the GCC region. Thank you to our moderator Nadine Hani and fellow panelists Dr. Susan Galbraith, Dr. Gilberto Lopes, Eric Lefkofsky, Prof. Humaid Al-Shamsi, Dr. Sawsan AlMadhi, Prof. Walter Ricciardi, Ti Hwei How, Pelin Incesu, Dr. Cary Adams, Dr. Fahed Al Marzooqi and Dr. Asma Al Mannaei for being part of such an inspiring day. I also want to thank the global and local teams at AstraZeneca who pulled together this event, including Sunil Verma, Sjoerd Hubben, Shira Gerver, Anna Cohen, Genevieve Tuck, Adam Castellani, Peter Raouf, Qutaiba AlManaseer, Mohamed Yousef, Preeti Chhatbar, Farah Dakhlallah Coutts, Esra Y?ld?z Erkomay, and Viraj Rajadhyaksha. The collaboration and ideas for innovation from the event give me great hope for what we can achieve together on behalf of millions of people living with cancer who are counting on us.
#Expo2020 #collab4healthierworld.?
