Low-income patients less likely to survive cancer: study

Low-income patients are less likely to survive any type of cancer, as they have a lower prevalence of cancer screening than wealthier patients, data showed Wednesday.

The five-year survival rate for stomach cancer patients receiving medical aid was 22.7 percent lower than for patients covered by health insurance, 20.4 percent lower for colorectal cancer, 27.2 percent lower for liver cancer, 13.5 percent lower for breast cancer and 16.6 percent lower for cervical cancer.

The data was presented by the National Cancer Center, which studied patients who had survived for at least five years after being diagnosed with cancer, as registered with the country's cancer data and the National Health Insurance Service between 2014 and 2018.

In particular, the gap in cancer survival rate was more prominent between medical aid recipients and the top 20 percent of income earners among health insurance subscribers. The survival rate of the beneficiaries was 20 percent lower for stomach cancer, 16.9 percent for colorectal cancer, 14.6 percent for liver cancer, 13.9 percent for breast cancer and 14.6 percent for cervical cancer.

The study, submitted to Rep. So Byeong-hun of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, also showed that cancer screening rates for beneficiaries of medical aid were lower than patients who were subscribers to the health insurance program by 28.2 percent for stomach cancer, 22.4 percent for colorectal cancer, 28.1 percent for liver cancer, 18.5 percent for breast cancer, 29.3 percent for cervical cancer and 16.4 percent for lung cancer.

So pointed out the inequity in cancer testing as widening the gap in survival rates by income.

"(The government) needs to work to raise the screening rates for medical aid recipients, as well as collect statistics on the survival and mortality rates of health insurance subscribers and medical aid beneficiaries so that they could be used for developing policies to reduce cancer death rates," So underscored.