CANCER CONTROL IS AN INVESTMENT, NOT A COST
When one is stricken by Cancer, the financial burden can be overwhelming. This is very much pronounced in the Philippines since the financial risk protection mechanisms are limited and patients often need to shell out money from their own pockets to pay for treatment and other related costs.
In a study by Dr. Hilton Lam (UP PGH), he cited that for cancer patients, the mean out-of-pocket expenditure for cancer treatment far exceeded the mean household income, leading to a financial catastrophe.[1]
This huge out of pocket costs often deter health seeking behavior or leads to discontinuance and abandonment of treatment. In Dr. Lam’s study, about 75% voluntarily stop or abandon treatment while average treatment compliance is at a low 21%. These conditions are most-observed among the poor marginalized sectors but also occur even among the so called middle class.
Thus there has been a number of efforts to convince the government to invest in cancer control. Cancer Coalition Philippines, a broad network of cancer patient support organizations, health care providers, cancer advocates is leading this call.
The coalition strongly believes that a radical increase in spending on cancer control is essential if the Philippines want to reduce the number of cancer-related deaths in the coming years.
According the World Health Organization (WHO), incidence of cancer is projected to increase by as much as 80% by 2030 in low resource countries like the Philippines. If this projection will materialize, it will have a staggering effect on the ability and resiliency of the Philippine health system as well as its overall economy; thus funding an integrated cancer control program is necessary.
The Lancet Oncology, an authoritative forum for key opinion leaders across medicine, government, and health systems worldwide published in their website that scaling up radiotherapy capacity from current levels could lead to saving of 26.9 million life-years in low-income and middle-income countries over the lifetime of the patients who received treatment. The expected economic benefits of this investment in radiotherapy would be $365.4 billion, the study said. Though no Philippine-specific study is available, this indicates that investing in cancer control will bring about dramatic changes in cancer outcomes and big savings for the health system.
Thus the bill pending in both houses of Congress, known as the National Integrated Cancer Control Act is indeed a necessary and a timely intervention to ensure the cancer control program will secure adequate support and fully realize respectable outcomes.
Thus the Coalition fully supports its immediate passage into law.
[1] Ngelangel et al (2016). Philippine Costs in Oncology Study.