# Geographic Distribution of Cancer Care Providers in the Philippines

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-eala-oncologist-distribution-philippines-jgo-2022/  
OnCo record `paper-eala-oncologist-distribution-philippines-jgo-2022` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A count of board-certified cancer specialists in each of the Philippines' 17 regions from the national societies' membership lists: 348 medical oncologists and 99 radiation oncologists for almost 110 million people, concentrated in Metro Manila.

## Summary

The authors took the regional area of practice of members of the national societies of medical, radiation, surgical and gynaecological oncology and of hospice and palliative medicine from their official websites and compared it with the regional census.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Journal: JCO Global Oncology
- Year: 2022
- DOI: 10.1200/go.22.00138
- Authors: Eala MAB, Maslog EAS, Dee EC, Ting FIL, Toral JAB, Dofitas RB, Co HCS, Cañal JPA
- Findings: 348 medical oncologists, 164 surgical oncologists, 99 radiation oncologists, 142 gynaecological oncologists and 35 hospice and palliative medicine specialists for a population of almost 110 million.; That is 0.32 medical oncologists and 0.09 radiation oncologists per 100,000 people.; Every region has at least one medical and one gynaecological oncologist; two regions have no surgical oncologist, five no radiation oncologist and eight no palliative medicine specialist.
- What it means: Where a patient lives decides how far they travel for radiotherapy or palliative care, which is part of why treatment waits and abandonment are concerns in Philippine cancer care.
- Caveats: Society membership lists may be incomplete or out of date.

## Sources

- JCO Glob Oncol 2022: https://doi.org/10.1200/go.22.00138
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36332171/

## Connected records

- institutions: [Department of Health, Philippines](https://onco.cc/institutions/doh-philippines/)

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