Back and forth between cancer treatment and cancer control programs: Insights from the Cuban experience

Cancer control is a wider concept than oncology, and it includes comprehensive actions for prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, services organization and education, aiming to modify hard indicators such as incidence and mortality rates, and survival, at a population scale. Based on these concepts, organized national cancer programs appeared in several countries in the second half of the 20th Century.But at the same time, scientific efforts started to modify the landscape of cancer control. Evidence of mortality reductions began to appear, cancer driving mutations became measurable, many novel drugs were registered, the methodology of clinical trials spread through health systems, targeted drugs and immunotherapy entered into the mainstream of therapeutics, and treatment goals started to shift from cure to chronic control.
Source: Seminars in Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research