The article below from the Lancet reflects Latin America’s fight to control cancer amidst a slew of regional political crises.

“2023 began with the emergence of chaotic and violent scenes from Brazil, as the country weathers a period of high political instability. In January, thousands of far-right supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the Presidential Palace, and the Supreme Court in Brasilia in protest against the inauguration of the country’s new President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was democratically elected in October, 2022. Bolsonaro’s most dedicated supporters refuse to accept the new presidency, claiming electoral fraud, and have led road blockades that have crippled major sectors of the economy, as well as street protests and violent attacks on police and civilians. The mounting tensions are just one indicator of the nation’s instability and unrest—a socio-political crisis that is not confined to Brazil but extends to many other Latin American countries. Against this tumultuous backdrop, how is health care, and cancer care in particular, faring across the region?

Cancer is a leading cause of disease and death in Latin America, and the burden is rising. According to Globocan 2020 data, 1.5 million new cancer cases and 700,000 deaths occur annually in Latin America and the Caribbean. The most common types are breast, prostate, colorectal, lung, and stomach cancers, with tumours linked to westernised lifestyles increasing most rapidly. If this trend continues unabated, the region’s cancer burden is expected to rise by 67%, reaching 2·4 million new cases annually by 2040. In Argentina, an estimated 15 people are diagnosed with cancer per hour; Uruguay has the highest cancer incidence and mortality rates on the continent; Peru is facing an alarming shortage of cancer drugs; and in Venezuela, cancer care is largely unavailable.

This troubling situation is hardly new. 10 years ago, we published a Commission on cancer control in Latin America and the Caribbean, emphasising the urgent need to tackle the region’s rising cancer burden to prevent dire human and economic consequences, and recommending several key actions to address the crisis. In 2015, we published a Commission update, which set an optimistic tone: the authors heralded the progress achieved in just 2 years, especially in terms of public financing spent on health care, access to high-cost treatments, and broader health insurance coverage. Yet, the outlook has since become pessimistic: a 2021 Series highlighted ongoing challenges and barriers to effective cancer control in the region, including the huge setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, insufficient health-care financing, poor and unequal access to diagnostics and treatment, inadequate cancer prevention strategies, and widening health disparities.”1

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References

  1. Oncology, L. (2023). National crises and cancer control: challenges for Latin America and beyond. Lancet Oncology, 24(2), 117. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1470-2045(23)00022-0

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