Delivering Better Cancer Care to Those in Need

Removing the barriers to better cancer care is a significant challenge in many countries worldwide. Partnering with different stakeholders across the health eco-system and playing our part to ensure that every patient has the opportunity to achieve optimal care is a responsibility that we at Bayer take seriously.

As part of the Oncology Sustainability Initiative at Bayer, we are working across the globe on projects that are primarily focused on improving access to quality cancer care for large, underserved communities in low- and middle-income countries – which experience disparities in access to cancer care.

One landmark Oncology Sustainability project is the partnership between Bayer and the National Cancer Institute of India-All India Institute of Medical Sciences (NCI-AIIMS) located in Jhajjar, Haryana. This collaboration, which was initiated in 2021, brings cancer screening to patients at high risk of cancer in underserved rural communities in India, helping to reduce disparities in access to cancer care.

Bayer continues to support this landmark project which is focused on targeted screening in high-risk individuals in order to detect cancer in its early stages and help ensure that patients receive timely treatment and care. Mobile technology is used so that screening, a starting point in quality cancer care, can be delivered to those patients living in remote, rural locations.

The five-year initiative includes plans to launch screening programs for prostate, head and neck/oral cancer. It will enable screening of approximately 12,000 patients in the geographical vicinity of NCI, thereby enhancing cancer surveillance and benefitting individuals who may otherwise never be able to find quality cancer care.

In Egypt, liver cancer or hepato-cellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second most common cancer in men, and the sixth most common in women.¹ The HCC prevalence rate in the country is above the global average, yet patient outcomes remain below international standards.

Bayer has initiated a collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population (MHOP) to support access to HCC screening, diagnosis and treatment in the country. This partnership will work in three ways to improve patient outcomes.

The first will be to strengthen the healthcare system to ensure consistent quality of care, and better use of data for decision-making in treatment and care. The second will be to support development of healthcare service capacities through medical education and training programs, and the third to raise patient awareness through education in order to develop knowledge of cancer management and create demand for quality treatment and care. The partners have set themselves ambitious goals, and first results of this program are expected to be seen from as early as 2022.

Whether it is through educational campaigns, projects that make cancer screening and diagnosis more accessible, or by enabling health services to increase their capacity to provide better care, this initiative provides the opportunity to reach over 300 million patients worldwide. It works towards our collective goals as a cancer network to save as many lives as possible from cancer and to make a positive difference to the lives of all those affected by it.

Bayer is committed to continuing to drive forward innovative and impactful, new initiatives focused on underserved communities in partnership with leading organizations in order to help address inequities in cancer care across the world. Together we can make ‘Health for All’ a reality for people with cancer around the globe and ensure that no-one is left behind.

Learn more about the importance of collaboration in the fight against cancer.

¹ Rashed, W.M., Mohamed Kandeil, M.A., Mahmoud, M.O. et al. Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) in Egypt: A comprehensive overview. Journal of the Egyptian National Cancer Institute. 32; 5 2020