Equity in Cancer Care and Outcomes of Treatment: A Different Type of Cancer Moonshot

• Published in: JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 315; no. 12; pp. 1231 - 1232
• Main Author: Horwitz, Ralph I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Medical Association 22.03.2016
• Subjects: Biomedical Research; Black or African American; Black People - statistics & numerical data; Breast Neoplasms - mortality; Cancer therapies; Clinical outcomes; Female; Health care access; Health care policy; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Male; Neoplasms - mortality; Neoplasms - prevention & control; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Program Development; Public health; Quality of care; Socioeconomic Factors; United States - epidemiology; White People - statistics & numerical data; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0098-7484; 1538-3598; 1538-3598
• DOI: 10.1001/jama.2016.2242

For the loved ones they've all lost, for the families they can still save, so they must make America the country that cures cancer once and for all. With those stirring words, President Obama challenged the nation to advance the science and care of cancer to alleviate the burden of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. However, deaths from cancer are not equally distributed in the US population. Without the equivalent of a moonshot effort to achieve equality of outcomes in both the length and quality of survival, further advances in the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer will continue to favor the well off and well educated, leaving the poor and poorly educated behind. Here, Horwitz advocates for equitiable opportunity for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer to achieve equivalent outcomes for all US residents.