"Cancer cannot be diagnosed over the phone"

• Health In just four years almost half of cancer drugs have been introduced in Spain

• Oncology "It is unethical to delay a year and a half or more for the arrival of drugs that can save the lives of thousands of cancer patients"

At the end of 2022, the Spanish Group of Cancer Patients (GEPAC) launched the campaign

, with which they intend to make visible the

that patients face cancer, as well as the

Spanish autonomous communities.

Begoña Barragán, its president, also wants to focus on

cancer diagnoses.

Almost three years after the start of the pandemic, have the care levels prior to Covid-19 been recovered in oncology? access to diagnostic tests, monitoring and treatment.

In what the situation has not recovered is at the primary care level. Two years ago, precisely, you commented that what worried you the most were the delays in diagnoses due to PC saturation. Primary Care is the entrance to the health system and, therefore, a very important point for cancer patients.

For you to be diagnosed by a specialist, you must first be referred by a primary care doctor and there are many delays,

There is still a lot of telephone consultation and cancer cannot be diagnosed by telephone. In Spain, an average of 469 days pass from the time the EMA approves a drug against cancer until it is available.

Do Spanish cancer patients play at a disadvantage? If we did a ranking, Spain would be in the middle of the European classification, but that does not mean that we do not want to be among the leading countries.

We fill our mouths that we have the best healthcare in the world, but then when push comes to shove, at least when it comes to cancer care, it's not.

We have a delay in access to treatment.

But not content with this, it turns out that the drugs also end up being approved in Spain for fewer indications than those validated by the European Medicines Agency,

which constitutes another important disadvantage.

And that's not to mention the drugs that are approved but not financed, which amounts to the same as not giving access to them. What do you think is the reason for this delay? I would like to think that the approval system we have in our country it is extremely rigid and has important deficiencies that should be modified.

I would not want to think that this is due to pure and hard economic terms, but on many occasions one is tempted to do so, because in the end the drugs for which there are more difficulties to access are precisely the most innovative and those with the greatest impact. economic. Are these inequalities in access to treatment with respect to other European countries also occurring within Spain between the different Autonomous Communities? Yes, unfortunately yes.

It is an important crusade that we patients maintain because although this, among other things, is unconstitutional, the truth is that depending on where you live, you may or may not receive treatment;

or that you have access to diagnostic tests or not.

And these differences also occur within the same community, even between hospitals that are in the same city. When you lived in Madrid, you had 17 people registered at your address so they could receive treatment. When you are a cancer patient you have to look for all possible tricks to access treatment.

And we continue to do this, of course, because while access problems are resolved through administrative channels, time passes.

And if there is something that cancer patients do not have, it is precisely that, time.

You now live in a town in emptied Spain.

Is the situation there even worse for a cancer patient? I think that if I have won anything it is in primary care, because I live in a very small town and I have a doctor and a nurse every day and with same-day access if needed. need.

Of course, it would be more difficult if you had to seek specialized care.

In that case, surely I would also have to be one of those who ask to be registered elsewhere. What other struggles do patients have? If something worries us at this moment, it is that access to innovation for cancer patients has to improve and do it fast.

And we are also concerned about the fact that research in our country has little economic endowment.

In the end, the only way to advance cancer treatment is with research.

And if we do not provide this investigation with means and resources, we will not be able to do it in Spain.

It is curious, because politicians do not hesitate to appear in the photo when there is a Spanish innovation, but then when it comes to financing it, delays and problems arise.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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