58 O U R C O M M I T M E N T
Institut Curie, a citizen committed to the fight against cancer
Loyal to the heritage of Marie Curie, Institut Curie is a citizen that fights to defend scientific and medical innovation as well as equality of access to healthcare.
INSTITUT CURIE - VIAVOICE CANCER OBSERVATORY: INEQUITIES IN CANCER
As part of the 7th Cancer Observatory survey in 2019,
Institut Curie addressed the issue of inequity in cancer,
which 69% of the respondents to the survey attributed to income level and place of residence.
They are convinced that these inequalities are diverse and
that they will grow as time goes by, particularly in terms of
access to innovative treatment. These inequalities appear
in two areas:
on the one hand, they are related to the medical experience
and to treatment: access to screening, proximity of
specialized care centers, access to innovative treatments,
on the other hand, they are related to individual
situations and preexisting disparities between individuals,
such as place of residence, income, isolation, level of
knowledge or information.
Even though inequalities in cancer outcomes are felt by a large majority of people, the overall perceptions of the disease, and particularly how it progresses and how likely someone is to recover, can in itself create
discrepancies. Although six out of ten people believe that
cancer is a disease with increasingly good outcomes, the
rest of the population is more muted on the subject: 28%
think that the proportion of patients who recover will remain
stable, and 7% of them believe that recovery chances will
decrease. Similarly, one of the important lessons learned
from the study is that inequalities in cancer outcomes
continue in the post-cancer phase. Indeed, the impact of
the disease on personal and professional lives does not
disappear once treatments stop. The physical and
psychological suffering persists: 63.5% of people suffer
from the after-effects of cancer or the treatments, and
these affect the most vulnerable populations. These
populations are therefore at greater risk since the ordeal
of cancer further jeopardizes their situation.
Methodology
The 2019 survey was conducted online by the Viavoice Institute for Institut Curie from May 13th to 17th, 2019, among a representative national sample of 1,002 French residents aged 18 and over, and more. The quota method was used to ensure that the sample was representative.
52% of French people state that they don t have adequate information about screening, prevention and treatment of cancer
65% of French people feel they are poorly informed about the risk factors concerning work-related cancers