Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Health policy

Towards greater equity in the global oncology workforce

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 15, pages 270–272 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Despite the rising incidence of cancer in low-income and lower-middle-income countries, very few oncologists are present in these regions — or, in some areas, even none. However, limited evidence of the global oncology workload inequity is available in the literature. Herein, we summarize recent findings that shed some light on this problem and discuss potential oncology workforce solutions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Ferlay, J. et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int. J. Cancer 136, E359–E386 (2015).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Farmer, P. et al. Expansion of cancer care and control in countries of low and middle income: a call to action. Lancet 376, 1186–1193 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Fundytus, A. et al. Delivery of global cancer care: an international study of medical oncology workload. J. Glob. Oncol. https://doi.org/10.1200/JGO.17.00126 (2017).

  4. Liu, J. X. et al. Global health workforce labor market projections for 2030. Hum. Resour. Health 15, 11 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Araujo, E. C., Evans, T. G. & Maeda, A. Using economic analysis in health workforce policy-making. Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 32, 41–63 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. European Society for Medical Oncology. The ESMO Developing Countries Task Force: Developing Countries Oncology Survey (DC-OS) report 2006. ESMO.org https://www.esmo.org/content/download/8399/170349/file/DC_Survey_Report_Istanbul.pdf (2006).

  7. Rubagumya, F. et al. Increasing global access to cancer care: models of care with non-oncologists as primary providers. Lancet Oncol. 18, 1000–1002 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Gulia, S. et al. National Cancer Control Programme in India: proposal for organization of chemotherapy and systemic therapy services. J. Glob. Oncol. 3, 271–274 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Howard, S. C. Establishment of a pediatric oncology program and outcomes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in a resource-poor area. JAMA 291, 2471–2475 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Shulman, L. N. et al. Bringing cancer care to the poor: experiences from Rwanda. Nat. Rev. Cancer 14, 815–821 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Temidayo Fadelu is at the Department of Medical Oncology of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.,

    Temidayo Fadelu

  2. Lawrence N. Shulman is at the Department of Medicine of Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,

    Lawrence N. Shulman

Authors
  1. Temidayo Fadelu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lawrence N. Shulman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lawrence N. Shulman.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fadelu, T., Shulman, L. Towards greater equity in the global oncology workforce. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 15, 270–272 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2018.31

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2018.31

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer