Cancer is a global burden with more than 18 million diagnosed and an estimate of 10 million deaths in 2020 worldwide. Cancer continues to be a major and growing problem in conflict affected areas too. The incidence of cancer is expected to rise significantly in those countries compared to the rest of the world. Conflict, massive migration and displacement has put a tremendous pressure on all health care systems and health economy which halted improvement in many cancer care in majority of the countries.
Countries affected by conflict like Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen, Latin America and others has led to destruction of the whole countries healthcare infrastructure including health care facilities, diagnostic facilities, and unavailability of drugs and loss of health care professionals due to death, migration or disabilities. This lead to inequitable access to care, lack of prevention, loss of screening programs, delay in diagnosis, loss of follow up and in many cases no anticancer therapy or palliative care to offer. Historically, most of humanitarian aid was focused on basic needs and first aid, leaving NCDs including cancer care with trivial support if any. Recently with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the negative global economic crisis, refugees all over the globe will have devastating impact on cancer care screening, early detection, treatment and palliative care.
The goal of this Research Topic is to present a collection of papers that address topics related to challenges to cancer care in areas of conflict, the magnitude of the problem and its impact on cancer related outcomes. The impact of conflict on cancer trajectory and care including prevention, treatment and palliative care. This sub theme can include the multi-actor involvement governing the management of cancer patients in conflict affected areas and surrounding countries, and challenges faced by patients and cancer care systems due to conflict.
Topics of interest include:
-Impact on cancer care in a specific country i.e. Ukraine, Syria
-The epidemiological changes, therapeutic geography and likely downstream impact on cancer outcomes. The scope can also include comparison on the impact of conflict on countries from MENA, Latin American and Ukraine and the response from different civil and professional societies
-Impact of conflict and political economy on cancer care
-Needs assessment of refugees in the hosting countries
-Capacity building for cancer care, education and research including palliative care in the areas of conflict
-Implementation of outcome measures, as a mean to scale up quality, access, influence individual assessment and treatment plans for cancer & palliative care.
-Lessons learned from past conflicts that can be applied to the current war/conflicts – i.e. in Ukraine
-Impact of conflict on health systems, infrastructure, and finances
-Humanitarian aid during conflict and cancer care
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Cancer is a global burden with more than 18 million diagnosed and an estimate of 10 million deaths in 2020 worldwide. Cancer continues to be a major and growing problem in conflict affected areas too. The incidence of cancer is expected to rise significantly in those countries compared to the rest of the world. Conflict, massive migration and displacement has put a tremendous pressure on all health care systems and health economy which halted improvement in many cancer care in majority of the countries.
Countries affected by conflict like Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen, Latin America and others has led to destruction of the whole countries healthcare infrastructure including health care facilities, diagnostic facilities, and unavailability of drugs and loss of health care professionals due to death, migration or disabilities. This lead to inequitable access to care, lack of prevention, loss of screening programs, delay in diagnosis, loss of follow up and in many cases no anticancer therapy or palliative care to offer. Historically, most of humanitarian aid was focused on basic needs and first aid, leaving NCDs including cancer care with trivial support if any. Recently with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the negative global economic crisis, refugees all over the globe will have devastating impact on cancer care screening, early detection, treatment and palliative care.
The goal of this Research Topic is to present a collection of papers that address topics related to challenges to cancer care in areas of conflict, the magnitude of the problem and its impact on cancer related outcomes. The impact of conflict on cancer trajectory and care including prevention, treatment and palliative care. This sub theme can include the multi-actor involvement governing the management of cancer patients in conflict affected areas and surrounding countries, and challenges faced by patients and cancer care systems due to conflict.
Topics of interest include:
-Impact on cancer care in a specific country i.e. Ukraine, Syria
-The epidemiological changes, therapeutic geography and likely downstream impact on cancer outcomes. The scope can also include comparison on the impact of conflict on countries from MENA, Latin American and Ukraine and the response from different civil and professional societies
-Impact of conflict and political economy on cancer care
-Needs assessment of refugees in the hosting countries
-Capacity building for cancer care, education and research including palliative care in the areas of conflict
-Implementation of outcome measures, as a mean to scale up quality, access, influence individual assessment and treatment plans for cancer & palliative care.
-Lessons learned from past conflicts that can be applied to the current war/conflicts – i.e. in Ukraine
-Impact of conflict on health systems, infrastructure, and finances
-Humanitarian aid during conflict and cancer care
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.