Hearing that you have lung cancerthe deadliest of tumors, gives you a “tsunami“emotional which “makes everything move forward”, also the resources: half of the patients see their income decrease due to illness, a loss of around 20% in six out of tenalthough it can exceed the 30%.
“The economic disorder is clearly great“, underlines to EFE the president of Spanish Association of Lung Cancer Patients (AEACaP), Bernard Gasparon the eve of World Lung Cancer Daywhich is celebrated every November 17.
Some patients can afford what the public system does not cover, such as travel, dermatological, nutritional or rehabilitation treatments, but others must resort to personal loans or help from relatives to pay for them.
81% have difficulty accessing care
Bernardwho lost his wife during a lung cancerhad to face the sessions of Psycho-oncology to bear their grief and that of their children. Each turn between 80 and 90 eurosalthough their association provides them 55 and pay the first ten.
He also requested leave to accompany his wife, who wanted to die at home, during the last months of her life.
He 8th report on lung cancer in Europe about the “Economic impact of lung cancer in Spain“reveals that half of patients lose their income diagnosis; six out of ten, 20%and one in four, more than 30%. Always 14.3% They struggle to live with what they have left.
The main cause is the recognition of sick pensionfollowed by inability to work (28.3%).
Consequently, the 50.9% you need to make adjustments to adapt to the new situation, such as change projects (32.4%) either limit leisure activities (31.5%).
Another problem for 81.2% of patients experiencing financial difficulties is to be able to afford certain treatments and care. At 57.6% limits their access to psychologists, physiotherapists or nutritionists.
It’s not the “bad cancer”
“The first moment of diagnosis is like a tsunami because suddenly everything on which your life is based, professional, family and personal, all of that disappears,” he told EFE. Mª Ángeles Marín, Leles.
For her husband and children, it was “demolition“. “He destroys everything, he takes everything before himself. “I turned the lives of my entire family upside down,” he remembers.
It happened to him in November 2021during a routine check-up for his asthma, which seemed to have gotten a little worse in recent months. When his pulmonologist opened the x-ray, “A large tumor was discovered in the upper part of the left lung. That’s where the show started“.
Spectacular because also Leles doesn’t smoke -he 80% patients do it or have done it – she is a woman – which has a lower incidence – and her father had pulmonary fibrosis, which was expected. “Cancer couldn’t even cross my mind.“, he insists.
And there was a “Lung adenocarcinoma with EGFR mutation in exon 21“, at the stadium IV and with metastases in the adrenal vertebrae, in both heads of the femur and, initially, in the brain, which disappeared after the first three months of treatment.
It took 20 minutes to digest it. I knew little about the disease, only that”It is diagnosed very late and unfortunately people die within a few months.“.”I thought I wasn’t going to make it to Easter. I have my birthday in February and I was wondering if I was going to celebrate it.“, he admits.
Her resources are the same despite a sick leave because her husband continued to run the family business and her work is now done by a close friend of her son who was hired at the time when he was an intern.
Live in Cadizclose to the hospital, so he does not spend money on travel, but he sees how other patients cared for by his association experience a complex financial situation.
Leles ends with a resounding message: “It’s not a bad cancer. To get lung cancer, you just need to have lungs. Please let’s stop stigmatizing it because smokers didn’t get cancer either.“.
Screening, 10 times cheaper than immunotherapy
The most of 30,000 cases which are detected each year, the 70% When they are already advanced, they also leave their mark on the system: they represent the 11% of total spending devoted to cancer (2.1 billion per year)with an average cost per patient of 63,245 euros in the first phases and more than 103,000 in case of metastasesaccording to the figures of Spanish Cancer Association.
Reducing this footprint necessarily implies early diagnosisunderlines Luis Seijodirector of pulmonology at Clinic of the University of Navarra.
In Spain they are not yet finished filteredrecommended in principle for people over 50 years who smoked between 20 and 30 packages/year or more, although these are criteria which, in the opinion of the expert, “you need to improve“.
Seijō He is one of the coordinators of ‘cassandra‘, a pilot project already launched 9 public centers in 4 communities which aims to confirm the viability of these programs in the Spanish health system.
Lung Ambition Alliancea global collaborative initiative between different organizations aimed at eliminating lung cancer as a cause of death, estimates its cost-effectiveness at 2,500 per QALY (quality-adjusted life years)when the colorectal is 2,154 and that of mom, 15,000.
“Immunotherapy costs at least 10 times more. But it is authorized, rightly so, to treat advanced stages. The key is to decide, as a society, how much we are willing to pay to save a life. We are spending a lot more to ensure that those who suffer from this disease can live a few more months“, he asks.
