Sozioökonomische Benachteiligung als Risikofaktor für Krebserkrankungen – „closing the care gap“

Poverty is an independent risk factor for cancer. Socioeconomically deprived groups are more likely to develop cancer, to develop it earlier in their life, show a shorter life expectancy after diagnosis, and benefit less from treatment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these effects have intensified. Herein, we give an overview of these findings for Germany. The main methodological approaches we consider are studies using individual markers such as available income, as well as regional indices for socioeconomic disparities such as the German Index of Multiple Deprivation (GIMD). We refer to the concept of “class-sensitive healthcare”, which questions structural conditions of health disparities that may lead healthcare providers to aggravate existing inequalities instead of closing the care gap. Future research should capture more factors contributing to outcome inequalities in cancer, such as socioeconomic, sexist, or racist discrimination to ensure equitable and equal healthcare for everyone.