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The need to build on recent progress

efforts. The importance, but also the real

complexity, of prevention actions should

be understood nonetheless, as successful

programmes will demand long-term

commitments, monitoring and investment.

“Screening for cancer may involve rounds and

rounds of tests at an important cost,” says Dr

Murillo. “But screening saves more lives than

caring for people late.”

Table 6: ICP assessment of selected preventive actions

Countr y/

indicator

National HPV

vaccination

programme

National screening

programme for

cervical cancer

National screening

programme for

breast cancer

Availability of

mammography

or clinical breast

exam (CBE)

Availability of

faecal occult blood

test or faecal

immunological test

Availability of
bowel cancer
screening by exam
or colonoscopy
Score 0-1 Score 0-1 Score 0-1 Score 0-2 Score 0-1 Score 0-1
Argentina 1 1 1 2 1 1

Bolivia 1 1 1 1 1 0

Brazil 1 1 1 2 1 1

Chile 1 1 1 2 1 1

Colombia 1 1 1 2 1 1

Costa Rica 0 1 1 1 1 1

Ecuador 1 1 1 1 1 0

Mexico 1 1 1 2 0 0

Panama 1 1 1 1 1 0

Paraguay 1 1 1 1 0 0

Peru 1 1 1 0 0 0

Uruguay 1 1 1 2 1 1

Note: Higher scores mean better performance.
Sources: WHO, Global Health Observatory Data Repository, http://apps.who.int/gho/data/; WHO, Cancer Country Profiles, https://www.who.int/cancer/country-
profiles/en/

Delivering care for all

The score for the service availability and

workforce domain shows great disparity, with

Uruguay and Brazil the leaders, while Mexico,

Peru and Paraguay are the laggards. This

domain looks at the capacity of countries to

provide services at the stage of treatment.

According to WHO data from 2014, most

countries have availability of radiotherapy

in the public health system, with Costa Rica,

Paraguay and Peru lagging behind. An indicator

on the capacity of radiotherapy machines

to meet patient demand was calculated by

The Economist Intelligence Unit as the actual

number of radiotherapy machines available