Cancer is often difficult to talk about. After seven years of advocacy struggles, the legislative initiative to pass a National Cancer Control Law has reached a critical mass of passionate ‘Cancer Warriors’ who have united to push for the most comprehensive legislation that would establish a nationwide integrated cancer program.
This receives little mileage from radio anchors or television hosts. It rarely enters the fiery discourse that abounds on social media.
This lack of attention persists despite some sobering statistics. According to the Philippine Cancer Society, there are over 110,000 new cases of cancer every year, while deaths number more than 66,000. This means that every single hour, 11 adult Filipinos are stricken with cancer—seven do not make it.
The data on childhood cancer are no less excruciating. Between 3,500 to 3,900 cases are recorded every year. This means 11 Filipino children are stricken with cancer every single day, and eight result in fatalities.
The numbers are even bleaker when it comes to cancer care. For a population of 100-million people, the Philippines has less than 300 oncologists. Very few cancer facilities are available, and many of them concentrated in Manila and some in Cebu and Davao. We also don’t have many pathologists.
These should be reason enough for government to intervene via legislation. The Cancer Coalition Philippines (CCPh), a national coalition of cancer patient support organizations, health care providers, cancer advocates, and champions, has meticulously studied the cancer care continuum—from prevention to detection to treatment and so on—to identify all the gaps that the National Cancer Control Act can address.
For instance, in the area of prevention, while the Department of Health has allocated a month-long awareness campaign geared toward cancer prevention, a full-year program is in fact crucial. Medical assistance for cancer treatment, meanwhile, are not only scarce, they are also focused on breast, childhood cancer, and prostate, leaving a wide gap as far as the many other cancers are concerned.
The bill also recognizes the economic burden that cancer represents both for the Filipino family and the country’s health system. A family member diagnosed with cancer can often spell instant catastrophe for an average Filipino family; in fact, more than half of such families are rendered bankrupt within a year of cancer diagnosis, especially if they come from middle- and lower-income groups.
A holistic and comprehensive cancer program can also be good for the government’s health program as early detection could result in savings of up to 76 percent, not to mention the potential productivity of lives that are senselessly lost to this disease.
This makes perfect sense because one third of cancers can be prevented. Anything from liver, lung, stomach, colon, and prostate cancers are preventable. If treated early, they can even be cured.
The National Cancer Control Act thus considers all the complexities that characterize cancer care toward an integrated, multi-disciplinary solution. For one, it ensures that every step of the cancer continuum is covered. It also guarantees that all facets of this disease—all types of cancers, all ages and genders, and all stages—are taken into account.
For instance, the bill mandates that a cancer patient who enters a hospital unaware of what to do or how to proceed will be taken care of by a team of specialists because cancer must be treated via a multidisciplinary approach. Under the bill, 10 regions will have a Cancer Institute to make sure that this high level of treatment is accessible to all, especially the poor and vulnerable.
It is a bill, in other words, that aims to provide a much-needed lifeline for every Filipino family faced with the unfortunate task of dealing with cancer. The intention is to make cancer treatment imaginable, not a luxury that has to compete with the everyday task of putting food on the table. To stop cancer from being an abrupt death sentence from which there is no escape.
Encouraging are several bills that are now pending in both Houses of the Congress and the growing number of Cancer champions among the policy leaders of government. The challenge now is to make this landmark legislation among the top priorities of this Congress. The data and alarming projections of this growing menace should be enough to motivate our lawmakers for cancer can strike anyone.
As broadcast journalist and breast cancer survivor Kara Alikpala powerfully put it: “We cancer patient survivors try to lead a life of service, so other cancer patients may live.”