Oncology : RWE, RWD.. some early trends and correlations

Early trends and correlations from Real World Data from Canada, US and major cities in India suggest a strong upswing towards the need of providers in the domain of Oncology.

Real world evidence based on #Provider data and #Public domain data in oncology, specifically related to cancers of Head and Neck ( tobacco associated cancers ), Ovarian malignancies, Cervical malignancies and Breast malignancies.

Disclaimer : This data is reliable but insufficient to provide direct causal effects of variables like Nutrition ( Vegetarian Vs Non-Vegetarian diet) , History of change in diet from Vegetarian to Non-vegetarian in the current progeny ( Mother vs Daughter), Multiple sex partners ( females ), Age of Puberty (females).

Some of the high probability correlations :

1) Female malignancies contribute over 2/3rd of the subjects (patients) in whom cancers are detected ( Breast,Cervical,Ovarian)

Note : Early detection in females and better healthcare awareness compared to males could be attributed partially to these rates
Also there could be a positive reporting bias

2) Majority of male malignancies are tobacco associated and correlate significantly to use of tobacco (chewing, smoking)

Note : Again there could be some reporting bias and limited private health data. We rely mostly on Public data that is readily available in Electronic / Digital form ( Canada and few Cancer centers in major cities of India )

3) Change of diet from one generation (mother)of pure Vegetarianism to Non-Vegetarian choices in next generation (daughter) is strongly associated with occurrence of ovarian malignancies. This trend is specifically significant in immigrants from north India to Canada and in the females from Southern states of India.

Note: This data, though suggest strong association, is limited to two centers in Canada and two in Southern India

4) Multiple sex partners and early age of puberty ( as against earlier generation ) is strongly associated with Cervical Malignancies

Note : Such associations are described in Text books since 2 decades but causality is extremely difficult to ascertain due to multiple variables that could be hidden or confounding

5) Over next decade, female subjects are likely to contribute over 75% of the patients and 66% of revenue related to cancer related treatments. The male subjects with tobacco related malignancies contributing major chunk of the 25% of the subjects and 33% revenue to the providers

Note : Tobacco related cancers have low survival years after detection than the female subjects with malignancies of Ovaries, Cervix and Breast

A larger sample size, real world data and more diverse data from various other geographies might be useful to conclude the causalities and generic trends across world population.

My personal views : This data is good enough for the population of Southern States and the immigrants to Canada from Northern India. I would also like to rest my confidence in the data and conclusions related to malignancies of Head and Neck.
These are early trends and providers in the domain of Oncology could benefit from such trends over next 10–15 years.