Cancer remains one of the world’s most significant health challenges, accounting for approximately 10 million deaths each year. While advances in screening, diagnosis and treatment have transformed outcomes for many patients, significant unmet needs persist across cancer types and patient populations. The increasing complexity of oncology means that scientific innovation alone is not enough: healthcare systems must also be equipped to ensure that new treatments reach the patients who could benefit from them.
ONWARD – Oncology Needs, Workforce, Access, Research & Disparities: Driving equitable access and system readiness in cancer care explores the healthcare system and reimbursement barriers that can prevent innovation from translating into meaningful improvements in patient care. The paper highlights six interconnected barriers affecting timely access to oncology innovation, drawing on examples from healthcare systems around the world.
On the healthcare system side, the report examines limitations in diagnostic provision and referral pathways, shortages in the specialist oncology workforce, and gaps in data infrastructure. Delays in diagnosis, unequal access to screening and biomarker testing, workforce capacity constraints and fragmented health data can all influence whether patients are identified and able to access appropriate treatment at the right time. These challenges can also vary substantially within countries, contributing to geographic and socioeconomic inequalities in cancer care.
The paper also considers reimbursement-related barriers. Conventional approaches to assessing clinical benefit can struggle to accommodate the evidence generated in oncology, including surrogate endpoints, single-arm studies and alternative trial designs. At the same time, pressure on healthcare budgets can lead to a disproportionate focus on short-term cost containment rather than the broader, longer-term value of innovative treatments. Increasingly complex therapies – including CAR T-cell therapies and combination regimens – introduce further challenges around evidence, affordability, contracting and reimbursement.
Importantly, ONWARD does not simply identify the problems. The paper brings together examples of approaches being explored across different markets to address these barriers, illustrating opportunities to strengthen screening and referral pathways, build workforce capacity, improve data infrastructure, evolve value assessment and introduce more flexible reimbursement and payment mechanisms. The framework presented on page 8 connects each of the identified barriers with potential directions for action.
For policymakers, payers, healthcare professionals, patient organisations and life sciences leaders, the report provides a valuable perspective on what is required to create oncology systems capable of keeping pace with scientific progress.
Download the full report to explore the barriers shaping oncology access globally, the approaches being used to address them, and the opportunities for coordinated stakeholder action to help ensure continued progress in cancer care translates into meaningful benefits for patients, families and society.
