Awareness of the global burden of cancer is growing, with this chronic disease increasingly affecting countries of low to middle income. Although the clinical focus on prevention, treatment, and research still lies very much within the domain of high-income countries, greater efforts have to be made globally. Significant barriers remain, however, such as limited infrastructure for diagnosis and treatment, social stigma, and perceptions that cancer is a fatal disease. In low-income settings, access to therapeutic drugs is also part of the problem: an issue addressed by the Access to Medicines Index, published on Nov 28, 2012, which specifically examined the role of pharmaceutical companies in making their drug portfolios available to low-resource countries.
Júlio Leonardo B. Pereira
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