THE head of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI)-Medical Oncology section is appealing to government to provide a bigger budget allocation for cancer patients.
In a statement, Dr. Marvin Mendoza said they are hoping that more budget will be allocated to cancer patients, particularly in financing tests and diagnostics.
“If we have to save more lives, we need more funds from the government, not just for treatment but for testing,” said Mendoza.
“Early diagnosis and treatment is far more effective than treating late-stage disease,” he added.
According to the Department of Health, P500 million was granted for the Cancer Assistance Fund for this year.
But Mendoza said an allocation is less than P1 billion can accommodate only about 200 cancer patients nationwide while about there are about 27,000 new cancer cases for breast cancer alone each year.
“If we have to save more lives, we need more funds from the government not just for treatment but for testing, because early diagnosis and treatment is far more effective than treating late-stage disease,” he said.
Mendoza said the call for bigger assistance is being issued because cancer patients have better chances of defeating their illness now because of numerous medical advances and innovations emerging globally, such as subcutaneous injection or intravenous administration.
“Medical innovation has progressed over the years to make treatment more effective and patient-considerate,” he said.
“We can beat cancer now. We can save lives. And we are trying our best to make treatment accessible nationwide, especially to those who cannot afford the treatment,” added Mendoza.
He said even at Stage 4 or when a cancer has metastasized to other organs — be it breast, liver, cervical — there is hope for treatment, but even more so if the illness is diagnosed early. The medicines for many different kinds of cancer are already available locally, he said.
Going beyond chemotherapy, the government provides targeted therapies for two types of cancer, breast and lymphoma. For breast cancer patients who cannot afford the P300,000 to P450,000 needed to go through the required 18 treatment cycles, they can go to at least 23 public hospitals throughout the country for free treatment.
