Achieving health equity in cancer care in the Philippines

Notwithstanding the progress made across the cancer care continuum, a major problem that many patients with cancer experience is the difficulty of access to global standards of care. Awareness of this problem has been increasing most especially when the economic context of a country forces health systems to deliver quality care despite the rising costs of diagnostic and therapeutic innovations amidst limited resources. Ultimately, inappropriate delivery of care to patients with cancer contributes to inadequate and unequal access to high-value therapy increasing financial toxicity among patients. This paper aims to highlight (1) the economic burden of cancer in the Philippines, (2) the saliency of identifying low-value interventions which come in two forms: the persistent over usage of proven ineffective modalities, and the underusage of potentially effective ones, and (3) the adverse effects of a decentralized health care system. The paper will also provide suggestions to address the challenges of achieving health equity in cancer care.