Patients for Precision is a network of Latin American-based cancer advocates working to advance precision oncology in Latin America’s public sector health systems. Collective advocacy is necessary to ensure large portions of populations affected by cancer in the region benefit from precision’s promise of extended lives, better care, and an improved quality of life. We call on all countries of the region to strengthen their multi-stakeholder plans for precision oncology investments as an important public health priority.
Nowadays new investments for precision oncology are difficult to justify across Latin America. Most countries are still dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, including catching up to significant pent-up demand for basic cancer-related services. Current economic and political uncertainty in the region make it hard to increase investments in health even though most leaders would acknowledge the necessity to do so. With cancer, too, there is an understandable tension among numerous possible priorities. The Pan-American Health Organization for example calls on countries to focus on HPV vaccination, greater attention to breast cancer screening, and ensuring gains in childhood cancer reach all parts of the region. It is difficult to argue with these important goals. There is also a strong global push for countries everywhere to re-focus on the availability of essential medicines for cancer given supply disruptions and weak delivery infrastructures. This is of course a critical objective for cancer care throughout the region.
But there is increasing concern among patient advocates in Latin America that the region continues to fall behind higher-income parts of the world where precision oncology is rapidly changing cancer standards of care. Patients for Precision believes that in order to address this inequity, countries should be more focused on how to introduce and expand elements of precision oncology especially in public health systems. Even if Latin America is not yet ready to adopt precision oncology at a scale comparable to other parts of the world, multi-stakeholder work plans and strategies should be in place to prepare for the future. This is not an argument for unrealistic funding nor should precision oncology substitute other badly needed initiatives in cancer. We simply believe the current and future possibilities with precision are too great and too important for the majority of cancer patients in Latin America to have to wait much longer.
