ecancermedicalscience

ecancermedicalscience is an open access cancer journal focused on under-resourced communities. In order to help reduce global inequalities in cancer care and treatment, we provide free access to all articles from the point of publication and we only charge authors who have specific funding to cover publication costs.

The journal considers articles on all aspects of research relating to cancer, including molecular biology, genetics, pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical reports, controlled trials (in particular if they are independent or publicly funded trials), health systems, cancer policy and regulatory aspects of cancer care.

Mariam Hassan

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, Pakistan

Dr Mariam Hassan discusses her ecancermedicalscience journal article.

The cancer burden is increasing rapidly globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which already face a double burden of infectious diseases and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

LMICs also struggle with poor social determinants of health, leading to cancer health disparities, such as delayed diagnoses and increased death rates due to cancer. Contextually, relevant research needs to be prioritised in these regions to ensure feasible, evidence-based healthcare planning and delivery for cancer prevention and control.

Dr Hassan discusses a syndemic framework that has been used to study the disease clustering of infectious diseases and NCDs across varied social contexts to understand how diseases interact adversely and how the wider environmental context and other socioeconomic factors contribute to poor health outcomes within specific populations.

Her team propose using this model to study the ‘syndemic of cancers’ in the disadvantaged population of LMICs and suggest ways for the clear operationalisation of the syndemic framework through multidisciplinary evidence-generation models for the delivery of integrated, socially conscious interventions for effective cancer control.