The Potential Role of Patient Navigation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries for Patients With Cancer

Noncommunicable diseases such as cancer are surpassing infectious diseases as the most threatening health care concern in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Cancer incidence rates in high-income countries (HICs) are plateauing or even declining, whereas in LMICs, cancer incidence is rising owing to aging, Western lifestyles, cancer-causing infections, smoke exposure, and carcinogenic environmental factors, among others.¹ Compounded by the fact that fragmented health care systems are ill-equipped to respond to this trend, LMICs bear a greater cancer mortality burden, with a mortality-to-incidence ratio almost twice that seen in HICs.¹ This global disparity in cancer mortality can be mainly attributed to presentation at more advanced stages of disease and the lack of access to timely cancer care in LMICs.