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. 2019 Jan;152(1):106-111.
doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2018.10.021. Epub 2018 Nov 4.

Disparities in the allocation of research funding to gynecologic cancers by Funding to Lethality scores

Ryan J Spencer  1 , Laurel W Rice  2 , Clara Ye  3 , Kaitlin Woo  4 , Shitanshu Uppal  5
Affiliations

Disparities in the allocation of research funding to gynecologic cancers by Funding to Lethality scores

Ryan J Spencer et al. Gynecol Oncol. 2019 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: To analyze National Cancer Institute (NCI) funding distributions to gynecologic cancers compared to other cancers from 2007 to 2014.

Methods: The NCI's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER), Cancer Trends Progress Report, and Funding Statistics were used to analyze 18 cancer sites. Site-specific mortality to incidence ratios (MIR) were normalized per 100 cases and multiplied by person-years of life lost to derive cancer-specific lethality. NCI funding was divided by its lethality to calculate Funding to Lethality scores for gynecologic malignancies and compared to 15 other cancer sites.

Results: Ovarian, cervical, and uterine cancers ranked 10th (score 0.097, SD 0.008), 12th (0.087, SD 0.009), and 14th (0.057, SD 0.006) for average Funding to Lethality scores. The highest average score was for prostate cancer (score 1.182, SD 0.364). In U.S. dollars per 100 incident cases, prostate cancer received an average of $1,821,000 per person-years of life lost, while ovarian cancer received $97,000, cervical cancer $87,000, and uterine cancer $57,000. Ovarian and cervical cancers had lower average Funding to Lethality scores compared to nine other cancers, while uterine cancer was lower than 13 other cancers (p < 0.01 for all comparisons). Analyses of eight-, five-, and three-year trends for gynecologic cancers showed nearly universal decreasing Funding to Lethality scores.

Conclusion: Funding to Lethality scores for gynecologic cancers are significantly lower than other cancer sites, indicating a disparity in funding allocation that persists over the most recent eight years of available data. Prompt correction is required to ensure critical discoveries for women with gynecologic cancers.

Keywords: Clinical trials; Resource allocation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Funding to Lethality trends 2007-2014
Scales are the same for all three graphs. Cancer sites divided for ease of identification and by 2014 score from highest to lowest.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Eight-year mean Funding to Lethality scores 2007-2014
Score calculated by total amount of annual funding in U.S. dollars reported by the NCI divided by the person-years of life lost per 100 new cases.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Funding to Lethality score trends for gynecologic cancers
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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