Research output and the public health burden of cancer: is there any relationship?
OBJECTIVE
The relative distribution of research output across cancer sites is not well described. Here, we evaluate whether the volume of published research is proportional to the public health burden of individual cancers. We also explore whether research output is proportional to research funding.


METHODS
Statistics from the Canadian and American cancer societies were used to identify the top ten causes of cancer death in 2013. All journal articles and clinical trials published in 2013 by Canadian or U.S. authors for those cancers were identified. Total research funding in Canada by cancer site was obtained from the Canadian Cancer Research Alliance. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients were used to describe the relationship between research output, cancer mortality, and research funding.


RESULTS
We identified 19,361 publications and 2661 clinical trials. The proportion of publications and clinical trials was substantially lower than the proportion of deaths for lung (41% deaths, 15% publications, 16% clinical trials), colorectal (14%, 7%, 6%), pancreatic (10%, 7%, 5%), and gastroesophageal (7%, 5%, 3%) cancers. Conversely, research output was substantially greater than the proportion of deaths for breast cancer (10% deaths, 29% publications, 30% clinical trials) and prostate cancer (8%, 15%, 17%). We observed a stronger correlation between research output and funding (publications r = 0.894, p < 0.001; clinical trials r = 0.923, p < 0.001) than between research output and cancer mortality (r = 0.363, p = 0.303; r = 0.340, p = 0.337).


CONCLUSIONS
Research output is not well correlated with the public health burden of individual cancers, but is correlated with the relative level of research funding.
Division of Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's University Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, ON;
F M
FM
Patafio
Departments of Public Health Sciences; Emergency Medicine and.
S C
SC
Brooks
Division of Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's University Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, ON;
X
X
Wei
Division of Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's University Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, ON;; Departments of Public Health Sciences.
Y
Y
Peng
Division of Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's University Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, ON;
J
J
Biagi
Division of Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Queen's University Cancer Research Institute, Kingston, ON;; Departments of Public Health Sciences; Oncology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON.
C M
CM
Booth
Research funding; cancer mortality; cancer policy; clinical trials; public health