Huilgol DK, Lucke-Wold B. Beyond numbers: Public health insurance and oesophageal cancer mortality risk. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2025; 17(7): 107460 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i7.107460]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Brandon Lucke-Wold, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Florida, 1505 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States. brandon.lucke-wold@neurosurgery.ufl.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jul 15, 2025; 17(7): 107460 Published online Jul 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i7.107460
Beyond numbers: Public health insurance and oesophageal cancer mortality risk
Divya K Huilgol, Brandon Lucke-Wold
Divya K Huilgol, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32601-7122, United States
Brandon Lucke-Wold, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States
Co-first authors: Divya K Huilgol and Brandon Lucke-Wold.
Author contributions: Huilgol DK wrote the manuscript; Lucke-Wold B supported manuscript. Huilgol DK and Lucke-Wold B contributed equally to this article, they are the co-first authors of this manuscript; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Brandon Lucke-Wold, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Florida, 1505 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States. brandon.lucke-wold@neurosurgery.ufl.edu
Received: March 25, 2025 Revised: April 19, 2025 Accepted: May 22, 2025 Published online: July 15, 2025 Processing time: 112 Days and 14.3 Hours
Abstract
In this article, we comment on the work put forth by Wu et al regarding the investigation of oesophageal cancer-specific mortality for a cohort of patients from Chongqing University Cancer Hospital. We specifically focused on the implications of public health plans such as Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI) and Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance as well as out-of-pocket ratios on patient treatment plans regarding whether they pursue surgical interventions or therapeutic treatments such as chemotherapy. While Wu et al put forth potential explanations for why patients with the UEBMI plan surprisingly had a 23.30% increased risk of oesophageal cancer-specific death, more analysis is needed to alleviate cancer burden within this group. Although it is likely that patients covered by Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance and higher out-of-pocket ratios have stronger self-recovery awareness, more work must be done to improve outcomes for people with the UEBMI plan while simultaneously implementing international and domestic initiatives to better emphasize cancer prevention and early detection. Lastly, future research must explore the relationship between Serious Illness Medical Insurance as well as the New Rural Cooperative Medical System on the mortality rate of oesophageal cancer patients in rural China, where disease burden is significantly higher than urban areas. By unifying these public health insurance schemes, officials can significantly alleviate economic burden of treatment and better prognosis for patients with oesophageal cancer.
Core Tip: Despite comprising a fifth of the global population, China carries approximately half of oesophageal cancer burden. With nearly the entire Chinese population covered by public health insurance plans, investigating the impact of insurance type, demographic features, and clinical aspects of treatment on patient mortality is critical to enacting measures to alleviate the economic burden and mortality rate of oesophageal cancer. Recent findings highlight the need for unifying and addressing inequities among these insurance plans while promoting oesophageal cancer prevention and detection. Future directions include analyzing the efficacy of insurance plans for rural Chinese communities which carry a disproportionate cancer burden.
