Lung cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. In the Philippines, it is the leading cause of cancer, with nearly 21,000 deaths and 23,700 new cases in 2022. Lung cancer’s high mortality rate and low survival rate, both mainly determined by the stage at diagnosis, is a challenge to Filipino patients having low access to early screening. In fact, 60 percent of lung cancer cases have been diagnosed in the advanced setting, significantly decreasing the five-year survival to 2.9 percent
This means that the earlier the diagnosis, the better the survival rate, from 13-36 percent when diagnosed with stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer, to as high as 68-92 percent for stage 1.
In a recent stakeholders’ gathering, AstraZeneca, the science-led, patient focused global pharmaceutical company, and AC Health, a healthcare corporation with a portfolio that includes hospitals, clinics, and digital health, further committed to collaboratively transforming lung cancer outcomes by driving national action on early screening and detection, and advance quality of lung cancer care through the Lung Ambition Alliance.
AstraZeneca and AC Health have partnered with Qure.AI to bring qXR, an AI-driven triaging tool for lung cancer screening to the Healthway Cancer Care Hospital in Taguig and Healthway Qualimed Hospital in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Through qXR, Filipino patients can avail themselves of early lung cancer screening backed by the efficiency of artificial intelligence.
Guidelines-recommended use of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) is established to be cost-effective and has demonstrated a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality due to diagnosis at earlier stages of the disease. While experts have recommended utilizing LDCT to screen for high-risk populations, it is still not widely implemented in routine lung cancer screening due to limited access.
This partnership, which allows integration of AI-supported chest x-rays with LDCT would further improve cost-efficiencies and enable more opportunities for routine lung cancer screenings and early detection.
“As an alliance, we stand together to better understand how lung cancer evolves, develop advanced therapeutic techniques, drive progress in the clinical management of the disease and ultimately empower and enable patients so they can live longer and better lives,” explained Ti Hwei How, vice president, International Oncology and Market Access at AstraZeneca.
“In line with our bold ambition to eliminate lung cancer as a cause of death, AstraZeneca is committed to creating value for Filipinos beyond the impact of our life-changing medicines through early detection, education, and treatment. With our partners in the alliance, we pledge to screen at least 1 million Filipino patients by 2026 for lung cancer, enabling early intervention that will change the disease trajectory of lung cancer in the Philippines,” said Lotis Ramin, AstraZeneca Philippines country president.
Paolo Borromeo, president and CEO of AC Health, underscored that it’s ultimately the patients who benefit when innovation comes to healthcare. “AC Medical Network and Healthway Cancer Care Hospital continue to deliver the best value oncology services because we work with some of the best partners all over the world, AstraZeneca being one of them,” he said.
