scholarly journals Research output and the public health burden of cancer: is there any relationship?

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 75 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.M. Patafio ◽  
S.C. Brooks ◽  
X. Wei ◽  
Y. Peng ◽  
J. Biagi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Cancer Mortality ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Cancer Site ◽  
Relative Distribution ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Burden

Purpose The relative distribution of research output across cancer sites is not well described. Here, we evaluate whether the volume of published research is proportional to the public health burden of individual cancers. We also explore whether research output is proportional to research funding.Methods Statistics from the Canadian and American cancer societies were used to identify the top ten causes of cancer death in 2013. All journal articles and clinical trials published in 2013 by Canadian or U.S. authors for those cancers were identified. Total research funding in Canada by cancer site was obtained from the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to describe the relationship between research output, cancer mortality, and research funding.Results We identified 19,361 publications and 2661 clinical trials. The proportion of publications and clinical trials was substantially lower than the proportion of deaths for lung (41% deaths, 15% publications, 16% clinical trials), colorectal (14%, 7%, 6%), pancreatic (10%, 7%, 5%), and gastroesophageal (7%, 5%, 3%) cancers. Conversely, research output was substantially greater than the proportion of deaths for breast cancer (10% deaths, 29% publications, 30% clinical trials) and prostate cancer (8%, 15%, 17%). We observed a stronger correlation between research output and funding (publications r = 0.894, p < 0.001; clinical trials r = 0.923, p < 0.001) than between research output and cancer mortality (r = 0.363, p = 0.303; r = 0.340, p = 0.337).Conclusions Research output is not well correlated with the public health burden of individual cancers, but is correlated with the relative level of research funding.

Fighting the Public Health Burden of AIDS With the Human Pegivirus

2019 ◽  
Vol 188 (9) ◽  
pp. 1586-1594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Greenhalgh ◽  
Rebecca Schmidt ◽  
Troy Day
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy ◽  
Health Benefit ◽  
Immune Deficiency Syndrome ◽  
Morbidity And Mortality ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Burden ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Hiv Aids

Abstract Highly active antiretroviral therapy has revolutionized the battle against human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). From its current global rollout, HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality has been greatly reduced, yet there exists substantial interest in the development of new therapies to further mitigate the HIV/AIDS health burden and to inhibit any fallout from the development of antiretroviral drug resistance. One potential intervention is the human pegivirus (HPgV). HPgV is not known to cause disease, and most remarkably it is shown to delay the progression of HIV to AIDS. However, the health benefit of increasing HPgV prevalence in the community of HIV-infected men remains unknown at the public health level. We evaluated the utility of HPgV biovaccination for mitigating the HIV/AIDS health burden using mathematical models. Importantly, our work considers the potential concern that HPgV will, itself, evolve to become disease-causing by permitting mutant disease-causing HPgV strains to potentially arise during treatment. Our findings show that HPgV biovaccination rates of 12.5%–50% annually could prevent 4.2–23.6 AIDS incidences and 3.3–18.8 AIDS deaths, and could save 2.9–18.6 disability-adjusted life years per 1,000 people. Together, these findings indicate that HPgV biovaccination could be an effective therapy for reducing HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality, and thus warrants further exploration.

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