Support drug treatment for breast cancer patients

More than 75% of breast cancer patients are diagnosed early

The 3-year review meeting of the project "Increasing access to advanced therapies in the treatment of high-risk breast cancer in the period 2020 - 2025" was held by the Vietnam Medical Association this afternoon, March 5, in Hanoi .

This is the first time this project has been implemented domestically, at 5 major hospitals, including: K Hospital, Bach Mai Hospital, Hanoi Oncology Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, and Cho Ray Hospital. The project's goal is to help breast cancer patients have access to advanced treatments through a comprehensive approach model; raise public awareness to improve early screening rates for people at high risk of breast cancer.

At the leading oncology unit, the rate of breast cancer patients diagnosed early has reached more than 75%.

According to Associate Professor - Dr. Nguyen Thi Xuyen, President of the Vietnam Medical Association, after 3 years of implementation, the project has achieved some positive results in improving the diagnosis, treatment and management of breast cancer in Vietnam.

Specifically, in previous years, when public awareness of breast cancer was limited, only 30% of patients were diagnosed at an early stage. By 2023, K Hospital's assessment statistics showed that the rate of breast cancer patients diagnosed at an early stage had increased by more than 75%.

The project also enhances diagnostic and treatment capacity at five hospitals; optimizes available data from the Vietnam Social Security and the National Cancer Institute, thereby building a database for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment; and increases access of HER2-positive breast cancer patients to advanced therapies.

The project created opportunities for hundreds of doctors to participate in training programs, improve their expertise in multimodal treatment of breast cancer and enhance clinical research capacity at the hospital.

Cancer Forecast in Vietnam

To create sustainable effectiveness, the project is implementing the construction of a database for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Two studies "Epidemiological map of cancers and assessment of costs of cancer treatment solutions in the period 2018 - 2020" and "Epidemiological characteristics and treatment costs of breast cancer in Vietnam" have been completed.

Cancer drugs are expensive

In addition, the project has developed indicators in the criteria set for recording breast cancer in Vietnam, which are used to record directly on the information system of the Ministry of Health and Vietnam Social Security, contributing significantly to the management and forecasting of cancer in Vietnam.

Also within the framework of the project, the program to support breast cancer patients to use free medicine was approved by the Ministry of Health and implemented at 18 hospitals, thanks to which, 431 patients were supported with free medicine with a total support amount of more than 67 billion VND, implemented by Roche Pharma Vietnam.

At the meeting, Deputy Director of the "Bright Tomorrow" Cancer Patient Support Fund Nguyen Ba Tinh said that the fund and the Vietnam Medical Association have proposed that the Ministry of Health study a plan to pay for health insurance for breast cancer screening for people at high risk, as well as pay for health insurance for some breast cancer treatment drugs, in order to reduce the financial burden on patients.

The age of Vietnamese women with breast cancer tends to be getting younger. However, due to many reasons, there are still some women who do not go for regular screening for early detection, so many women go to the hospital when the disease has progressed to a late stage, making treatment difficult and expensive.

Furthermore, more and more advanced cancer treatments are being invented, but many patients do not have access to them due to many factors such as the drugs not being available in Vietnam or not being covered by insurance.

The Ministry of Health strongly supports projects aimed at solving specialized and comprehensive problems for cancer such as the project developed and implemented by the Vietnam Medical Association and relevant parties "Enhancing access to advanced treatments for high-risk breast cancer patients in the period 2020 - 2025", and commits to continue to work with the Vietnam Medical Association to manage the implementation of this project.

(Mr. Nguyen Trong Khoa, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, Ministry of Health)

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/ho-tro-thuoc-dieu-tri-cho-benh-nhan-ung-thu-vu-185240305202141705.htm