Cancer causes loss of 10 mln healthy life years in Europe

Cancer causes the loss of 10 mln healthy life years, claiming lives of about 1.7 mln people in Europe. In Moldova, cancer kills at least 5,000 per year. General manager of the Swiss Company “Hoffman-La Roche Ltd”, Ala Ciobanu told a roundtable on “From Darkness to Light: new hopes of finding treatment for cancer” that at the moment the impact of all the maladies in Europe comprises 58 mln 807 thousand healthy life years, of which the sixth part belongs to one disease – cancer. The most spread diseases are lung cancer, followed by rectal cancer and stomach cancer. With reference to the Pan European Study on patient access to anticancer drugs, Ala Ciobanu stated that this illness has direct costs that represents the means used for prevention and treatment and indirect costs that represents the means lost because of work incapacity and, imminently, un-fabricated goods, incomes failed due to absences from work, costs for persons providing care to cancer patients, as well as the decease of the sick persons below 65. The total cost of cancer in 25 countries of Europe is estimated at EUR 54 bln, or EUR 120 per capita. The cited source says that nowadays the treatment of cancer is multi-optional and includes surgical procedures, radiotherapy and innovative drugs, most of them reaching the institutions in Europe in 3-5 years since launched. According to the cited source, in order to get anticipated results, modern medicine resorts to the association of all the methods of treatment, using new drugs with targeted action and minimum adverse effects. Annually, Europeans spend EUR 1.43 bln on investigations into cancer, while 8.1% of new drugs are anticancer ones. Unfortunately, these drugs are not equally accessible to all the patients, depending on the country investigating cancer, funds provided, and the period for approving new drugs, Ala Ciobanu said. In the European countries the expenses for cancer investigations are covered both by governments and donors. The average time for approving the drugs in the European countries is 418 days, while in Moldova -180 days. Attending the roundtable, director of the National Oncology Institute Dumitru Sofroni declared that currently the morbidity caused by cancer in Moldova is 192.9 persons in 100.000, while the mortality constitutes 143.7. Cancer ranks the third as concerns the cases of deceases and affects especially persons being able to work. The National Oncology Institute registered about 41,000 patients.