Context
With 350,000 new cases each year, cancer is the leading cause of death in France. In the midst of today's revolution in oncology, UNICANCER has conducted the study: "UNICANCER: What kind of cancer care in 2020?"
Goal
To know about the main developments in oncology to better anticipate and orient healthcare service.
Methodology
40 experts from the FCCCs, University hospitals, private clinics and the pharmaceutical industry, in France and abroad, were interviewed. The study was carried out under the supervision of an expert scientific committee in 3 stages:
1. Identifying trends in oncology by 2020
2. Qualifying and quantifying them: the study includes changes in FCCCs’ activities by 2020, in light of demographic and epidemiological trends on a national scale*
3. Assessing the impact of changes in terms of number of beds, equipment and medical time frames
Results
Ambulatory care will represent 50% of breast cancer surgeries, 15% of ovarian cancers (versus 3%), 15% of thyroid cancer surgeries (versus 1%). This will require reorganisation of surgical units: a 20% decrease of traditional hospital beds and a 40% increase of ambulatory beds
Technological progress will reduce the number of radiotherapy sessions per treatment and increase time spent in sessions by 60% to 200%
Tumour characterisation will reduce intravenous chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer by 25%.
Homecare chemotherapy is expected to increase up to 14% versus the current 3%
Oral chemotherapy treatments will require more follow-up consultations: the number of medical oncologists in FCCCs is to increase by 9%
FCCC patients benefiting from tumour characterisation will increase sevenfold, which will require a 50% increase in the biopathology and genetic-oncology staff
Due to technological advances, interventional radiology therapies will increase: 4x more interventional radiology treatments, 6x more interventional radiology consultations, 16% more scanner time and 36% more MRI time