Working towards equal cancer care for everyone – Cancer Research UK

Tackling inequalities in healthcare is one thing that I’ve at all times been obsessed with.  

I’m, and at all times have been a proud Yorkshireman – I grew up in Barnsley and most of my household nonetheless stay there. However my upbringing there made me very a lot conscious of the influence that socioeconomic deprivation can have on the well being outcomes inside communities. 

And now, as Government Director of Coverage, Data and Communications at Most cancers Analysis UK, I’m extremely motivated to make sure that as a charity we’re doing every little thing we are able to to make sure that the place you might be born, or the color of your pores and skin, has no influence in your probability of getting and dying from most cancers. 

In 2020, Most cancers Analysis UK produced a report showing that greater than 30,000 additional circumstances of most cancers within the UK every year are attributable to socio-economic variation and survival is worse for probably the most disadvantaged teams. 

That is unacceptable, and there may be clearly nonetheless a lot work that must be executed on this space.  

And it is among the many explanation why, in 2021, we launched our first Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy.  

As Iain Foulkes covered in our last article, we’ve made a lot progress in rising variety in our analysis workforce and portfolio since then. 

And so, on this article I wish to take the time to focus on among the adjustments we’ve applied throughout the Coverage, Data and Communications directorate at Most cancers Analysis UK, and the way we hope these adjustments would possibly influence most cancers inequalities sooner or later.  

Serving to to construct proof 

In fact, we’ve a lot of improbable researchers funded by Most cancers Analysis UK targeted on understanding and addressing the impacts of variations and inequalities on most cancers outcomes. For instance, we just lately introduced a brand new funded examine led by Dr Toral Gathani, which goals to make clear the variation in breast cancer across different ethnic minority groups. 

However inside our Coverage, Data and Communications directorate, we’re additionally immediately constructing the proof base on well being and most cancers inequalities. 

We’ve got been finding out how private circumstances and distance from the situation of specialist providers intersect and influence on access to optimal lung cancer care and subsequently greatest outcomes for sufferers with lung most cancers. 

Our most cancers intelligence workforce are always monitoring developments in most cancers incidence and mortality for 40 completely different most cancers websites and teams. This enables us to gather necessary knowledge that may give additional insights on most cancers inequalities. For instance, we recently published a paper exhibiting variations in most cancers incidence by broad ethnic group in England.