A leading oncologist at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute said cancer is now treatable, thanks to medical advances and innovations.
Dr. Marvin Mendoza, head of the Section of Medical Oncology at NKTI said there is hope for treatment, even at stage 4 or when a cancer has metastasized to other organs—be it breast, liver or cervical—and even more so if they are diagnosed early.
He said the medicines for many different kinds of cancer are already available locally.
Going beyond chemotherapy, the government provides targeted therapies for two types of cancer—breast and lymphoma. For breast cancer patients who could not afford the P300,000 to P450,000 needed to go through the required 18 treatment cycles, they could go to at least 23 public hospitals throughout the country for free treatment.
“Options for treatment include a subcutaneous injection that takes about 5 minutes to administer or a three-hour intravenous administration that also requires an additional two hours or so for preparation,” Mendoza said.
He said only about 200 or so patients could be accommodated nationwide because the Department of Health was given only less than P1 billion for the program. There are about 27,000 new cancer cases for breast cancer alone each year, Mendoza said.
“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.
Medical innovation has progressed over the years to make treatment more effective and patient-considerate, as well as easier for healthcare providers to administer, reaching more patients in a timely manner, according to Mendoza.
“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. In particular, we have medicines for breast cancer and lymphoma available in the DOH hospitals”, Mendoza said.