Cancer is currently the second leading cause of death in the country, and it is expected that within 10 years it will rise to first place, surpassing conditions to the circulatory and cardiovascular systems, generating large economic costs for the affected families due to the high values of the treatments. . To address this scenario, the Ministry of Health has promoted various strategies within the framework of the National Cancer Law.
One of these initiatives is the National Cancer Agency, which was presented at the seminar “National efforts to impact oncology”, organized by the IMPACT Center and the Center for Biomedical Research and Innovation (CiiB) of the Universidad de los Andes.
Agency’s Coordinator, Dra. Julia Palma
This body’s objectives are the coordination and supervision of the different Departments, Offices, or Units with technical competence in cancer matters to facilitate the implementation of the Law; in addition to the coordination of the Divisions, regional Health Ministry secretariats, and Health Services to implement the National Cancer Plan; the elaboration of the regulation and supervision for the implementation of the regulations; and maintain collaborative relationships with civil society, academia, and international organizations, among others.
During her presentation, the Agency’s Coordinator, Julia Palma, explained that the main challenge in the country regarding this disease is the inequality of access to treatment. “In our country, the number of doctors available is mainly in the private system, as is the number of oncology nurses. This gave rise to the Cancer Law, which is a great advance because not all countries have regulations of this type. One of our main objectives is to reduce mortality from this disease, and for this, we need equitable access to treatment. To achieve this, partnerships are essential. Without research, without universities, none of this makes sense,” she stated.
In her presentation, the expert gave an account of the need to have a comprehensive and differentiated look at the action approaches for childhood and adolescent cancer. “Children and adolescent patients have a better survival rate, but there are side effects and complications after the treatments. In this scenario, cell therapy and its results are fully justified in the reality of our country, ”she pointed out.
The Director of IMPACT, Maroun Khoury, explained that for the research center one of its main objectives is to provide the country with therapies that improve people’s health in an affordable and accessible way. “Cancer is a highly prevalent disease in the country and Chile is making a great effort to address this problem with the creation of a National Agency. As IMPACT, we have a great capacity to collaborate. We have an immunotherapy program and experts who are focused on adopting technologies and offering therapies nationwide,” she stated.
The seminar also included the participation of the Director of the Advanced Biotherapy Center of the Sheba Medical Center of Israel, Jonathan Esensten, who addressed good manufacturing practices (cGMP) in the use of T cells in the treatment of diffuse midline glioma, a type of brain cancer that affects the central nervous system and in pediatric patients has a survival rate of less than one year, and the need to bring these treatments and their promising results closer to all people. “T-cell therapy is an innovative procedure that uses the patient’s immune system to seek out and destroy cancer cells. Unfortunately, this advanced therapy is available only in a few countries and at very high costs. In Israel the prices are lower than in the United States, which has allowed this treatment to be affordable to more people without affecting its quality”, he explained.
Israel’s Sheba Medical Center is a government institution with world-class laboratory facilities that offer advanced cell therapies at lower costs for patients with multiple myeloma and leukemia and is the first medical center in the world to pioneer its application for acute myelogenous leukemia.