THE National Integrated Cancer Control Council (NICCC) is set to come out with five-year roadmap next week.
The council was created about five years ago under Republic Act No. 11215.
“The NICC Council was put together to look into the implementation and provide policies that are favorable to cancer patients. We have come up with a roadmap and strategic framework for the next five years, which we will present next week,” council member Dr Mae Concepcion Dolendo said at an online forum of the Department of Health yesterday.
Under the law, the NICCC Roadmap and Strategic Framework 2024-2028 shall provide annual targets, priorities, and performance benchmarks, for the institutionalization of strategies, policies, programs, and services in the national and local health care system.
Dolendo acknowledged the delay in the release of the roadmap.
“There has been considerable delay because the resources provided were focused on COVID-19. Now, we are able to do a lot of things for cancer care,” she said.
Despite the delay, she said, government was still able to push for more designated cancer centers.
“It used to be that people have to fly to Metro Manila to get cancer treatment… Now, we have 35 designated cancer centers across the country,” she said.
Dolendo also stressed the continued improvement of the Z Benefits package of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).
“We are trying to look into the PhilHealth Z Benefits and see how we can improve and include more cancer types into the package,” she said.
There were 153,751 cancer cases in the country as of 2020 — 86,484 females and 67,267 males. Among females, the most common cases are breast, cervical, colorectum, lung, and ovarian cancer.
As for males, lung, colorectum, prostate, liver, and leukemia are the most common cancer types.
