# Building an Effective International Medical Evacuation Program for Ukrainian Patients With Cancer Amid Prolonged Military Conflict

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-huivaniuk-medevac-ukraine-cancer-2024/  
OnCo record `paper-huivaniuk-medevac-ukraine-cancer-2024` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A study of the programme that moved Ukrainian cancer patients to hospitals in the European Union for treatment after the full-scale invasion, using the Ministry of Health's records for April 2022 to April 2023.

## Summary

A retrospective cohort study of the MedEvac programme, which arranged the transfer of Ukrainian patients with cancer to European Union hospitals after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The authors analysed patient data from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine's database for April 2022 to April 2023 and described the programme's parts.

Of 639 applications, 339 had enough data to analyse, and 281 of those patients were evacuated.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Journal: JCO Global Oncology
- Year: 2024
- DOI: 10.1200/go-24-00363
- Authors: Huivaniuk I, Kopetskyi V, Ivanykovych T, et al.
- Findings: 281 of 339 analysable applicants (82.9%) were evacuated to EU hospitals.; Median age of evacuated patients was 47 years; 94.0% were newly diagnosed, and 81.9% were evacuated for systemic cancer therapy.; A good performance status (ECOG 0 to 2) was the strongest factor linked to evacuation (odds ratio 9.64).; Patients with melanoma were more likely to be evacuated (odds ratio 2.56) and patients with head and neck cancer less likely (odds ratio 0.20).
- What it means: Ukraine kept some cancer patients on treatment during the first year of the full-scale war by sending them to EU hospitals, but those who were sicker were much less likely to go.
- Caveats: Only 339 of 639 applications had enough data to analyse.; Retrospective analysis of one ministry database over one year.

## Sources

- JCO Glob Oncol 2024: https://doi.org/10.1200/go-24-00363
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39388657/

## Connected records

- key papers: [HPV self-sampling for cervical cancer screening during wartime: a pilot implementation study from a conflict-affected region of Ukraine](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-kovalyov-hpv-self-sampling-zaporizhzhia-2026/)

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