Inequality in Accessibility of Proton Therapy for Cancers and Its Economic Determinants: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Cancer is a leading cause of death in the world, and the estimated new cancer cases were 19 million and the estimated cancer deaths were around 10 million worldwide in 2020. Proton therapy (PT) is a promising treatment for cancers; however, only few patients with cancer received PT due to limited number of PT centers worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cross-sectional country level data were collected from publicly available information. Lorenz curves and Gini coefficient were used to assess the inequality in accessing to PT, and zero-inflated Poisson models were used to investigate the determinants of number of PT facilities in each country. The Gini coefficients were 0.96 for PT centers and 0.96 for PT chambers, which indicated high level of inequality. Total GDP had a significant impact on whether a country had a practical PT center, whereas total GDP and GDP per capita had significant impacts on the number of PT centers. CONCLUSION: Extremely high inequality exists in accessibility of PT centers among all countries in the world. Economic development was the most important factor determining the adoption of PT; thus, with the growth in global economics, more PT centers can be expected in near future.