American Cancer Society; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Swiss Re; Swiss Cancer Research foundation; Swiss Cancer League; Institut National du Cancer; La Ligue Contre le Cancer; Rossy Family Foundation; US National Cancer Institute; and the Susan G Komen Foundation.

SummaryBackgroundGlobal inequalities in access to health care are reflected in differences in cancer survival. The CONCORD programme was designed to assess worldwide differences and trends in population-based cancer survival. In this population-based study, we aimed to estimate survival inequalities globally for several subtypes of childhood leukaemia.MethodsCancer registries participating in CONCORD were asked to submit tumour registrations for all children aged 0–14 years who were diagnosed with leukaemia between Jan 1, 1995, and Dec 31, 2009, and followed up until Dec 31, 2009. Haematological malignancies were defined by morphology codes in the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third revision. We excluded data from registries from which the data were judged to be less reliable, or included only lymphomas, and data from countries in which data for fewer than ten children were available for analysis. We also excluded records because of a missing date of birth, diagnosis, or last known vital status. We estimated 5-year net survival (ie, the probability of surviving at least 5 years after diagnosis, after controlling for deaths from other causes [background mortality]) for children by calendar period of diagnosis (1995–99, 2000–04, and 2005–09), sex, and age at diagnosis (<1, 1–4, 5–9, and 10–14 years, inclusive) using appropriate life tables. We estimated age-standardised net survival for international comparison of survival trends for precursor-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).FindingsWe analysed data from 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries. During 1995–99, 5-year age-standardised net survival for all lymphoid leukaemias combined ranged from 10·6% (95% CI 3·1–18·2) in the Chinese registries to 86·8% (81·6–92·0) in Austria. International differences in 5-year survival for childhood leukaemia were still large as recently as 2005–09, when age-standardised survival for lymphoid leukaemias ranged from 52·4% (95% CI 42·8–61·9) in Cali, Colombia, to 91·6% (89·5–93·6) in the German registries, and for AML ranged from 33·3% (18·9–47·7) in Bulgaria to 78·2% (72·0–84·3) in German registries. Survival from precursor-cell ALL was very close to that of all lymphoid leukaemias combined, with similar variation. In most countries, survival from AML improved more than survival from ALL between 2000–04 and 2005–09. Survival for each type of leukaemia varied markedly with age: survival was highest for children aged 1–4 and 5–9 years, and lowest for infants (younger than 1 year). There was no systematic difference in survival between boys and girls.InterpretationGlobal inequalities in survival from childhood leukaemia have narrowed with time but remain very wide for both ALL and AML. These results provide useful information for health policy makers on the effectiveness of health-care systems and for cancer policy makers to reduce inequalities in childhood cancer survival.FundingCanadian Partnership Against Cancer, Cancer Focus Northern Ireland, Cancer In...

The distribution of ovarian cancer histology varies widely worldwide. Type I epithelial, germ cell and sex cord-stromal tumours are generally associated with higher survival than type II tumours, so the proportion of these tumours may influence survival estimates for all ovarian cancers combined. The distribution of histological groups should be considered when comparing survival between countries and regions.

Objective: To analyze differences in survival of breast, cervical, lung, prostate and stomach cancer by health insurance regime (HIR) and socioeconomic position (SEP) in an intermediate city in a middle-income country.Methods: All patients with breast, cervix uteri, lung, prostate and stomach cancer diagnosed between 2003 and 2007 and characterized by the Manizales population-based Cancer Registry (MCR) were included and followed up to a maximum of 5 years for identifying deaths. Survival probabilities estimated by HIR were defined according to the type of affiliation at the date of diagnosis, and by socioeconomic stratification of residence (SS) as indicator of SEP, stratifying for other prognostic factors using Kaplan-Meier methods. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted for multivariate analysis.Results: A total of 1,384 cases and 700 deaths were analyzed. Five-year observed survival was 71.0% (95% IC: 66.1-75.3) for breast, 51.4% (95% IC: 44.6-57.9) for cervix, 15.4% (95% IC: 10.7-20.8) for lung, 71.1% (95% IC: 65.3-76.1) for prostate and 23.8% (95% IC: 19.3-28.6) for stomach. Statistically significant differences in survival by HIR were observed for breast, lung, prostate, and stomach - with poorer survival for the subsidized and uninsured patients. Differences by SS were observed for lung and prostate. Differences in survival by HIR were independent of SS, and viceversa. Conclusions: Important inequities in cancer survival exist related to HIR and SEP. Possible explanations include underlying comorbidities, late stage at diagnosis, or barriers to timely and effective treatment.

In 2012, Colombia implemented a school-based HPV vaccination program of a 3-dose series for nine year old girls. Following a mass psychogenic response after vaccination in a Colombian town, vaccination rates dropped from 80% in 2012–2013 to 5% in 2016. The study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators of HPV vaccine uptake among girls eligible for vaccination in the initial years of vaccine implementation from 2012 to 2014, and their parents. We conducted 19 individual qualitative interviews and 18 focus groups with an average of 5 girls, in Manizales, Colombia between 2016 and 2017. In total, 49 girls from six schools and 58 of their parents participated in the study. Participants had some degree of awareness about cervical cancer, especially among those of middle and upper socioeconomic level. However, the vaccine was known as a prevention measure only after pap-smears and condoms. The main facilitator for vaccine uptake for parents was the desire to prevent diseases in general and for girls, it was facilitated by receiving positive information about the vaccine. The main barriers for vaccine uptake or for three doses completion were the event in Carmen de Bolivar, fear of adverse effects and fear of needles. Girls and parents stated that they received little or no information from schools or health care services about the HPV vaccine prior to vaccination. Our results suggest that improving HPV vaccination rates in Colombia will require a comprehensive education program including mass media information about HPV vaccine.