CARE AND ACCESS NETWORKS OF CANCER PATIENTS IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH SCENARIO: INTEGRATIVE LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction: Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 7 million people die annually as a consequence of cancer. The health Care Networks (RAS) are polyarchic organizations of health service sets, integrated among themselves by a single mission, by common objectives and by a cooperative and interdependent action, which allow the provision of continuous and integral attention to a given population, coordinated by primary health care. Objective: to understand, through scientific publications, how the health care of the cancer patient is and how the patient’s access has been, as well as to reinforce the importance of RAS in the public health scenario as a strategy to guarantee access in timely manner. Method: Integrative Literature Review. The National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health (PUBMED) databases were consulted. The descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS) used were : access to health services, care, health care and cancer. The keyword: treatment was also used. The boolean operator used among all descriptors was AND. Results: 23 articles were found in the electronic databases. After reading the abstracts, 10 studies were selected for the review. Of the total publications included, the majority (n = 7) addressed the access to the cancer patient and how this access is characterized in health services. The other publications (n = 3) presented themes such as the cancer patients perceptions in relation to care. The disarticulation between the supply and the demands of the services results in iniquities in the access and inefficiency of the health system. The therapeutic trajectory of the cancer patient and access to specialized consultations and examinations was pointed out as the patient’s greatest difficulties. It was also found that the difficulties related to geographic access and the availability of specialized health services generate delay in the diagnosis and implementation of an effective treatment in the health trajectory. Conclusion: The care flow needs to be optimized, in favor of integrality and equity in health. Solutions should be sought to reduce/eliminate barriers, so that all actions of the cancer care line are performed in a timely manner: screening exams, diagnostic exams and treatment.