Pediatric Cancers and Family Financial Toxicity in the Philippines: Insights for Southeast Asia and Similarly Resourced Settings

• Main Authors: Columbres, Rod Carlo, Feliciano, Erin Jay G, Taleon-Tampo, Kathleen Joy, Legaspi, Katelyn Edelwina Y., Eala, Michelle Ann B., Ng, Kenrick, Chino, Fumiko, Ting, Frederic Ivan L., Dee, Edward Christopher
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: Diseases; Medicine and Health Sciences; Neoplasms; Oncology
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/asmph-pubs/197; https://archium.ateneo.edu/context/asmph-pubs/article/1201/viewcontent/PIIS2666606524001081.pdf
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Cancer is a leading cause of death among children in the Philippines, a low-middle-income country of over 110 million people. In this Comment, we describe how financial toxicity affects families of pediatric patients with cancer in the Philippines. We explore direct costs of care, indirect costs such as transportation and lodging, and psychosocial sequelae, in the Filipino medical system and sociocultural contexts. We present examples of successful interventions in the Philippines and in similarly resourced settings, with the goal of galvanizing further research, clinical interventions, and policy-level changes, aimed at mitigating family financial toxicity for pediatric patients with cancer in the Philippines and globally.