NIO Director: Oncology diagnosis a critical moment of patient qualification

To what extent can Polish women enjoy the benefits of innovative therapies? How big a barrier is the hindered access to genetic diagnostics?

For several years we have been observing, but especially in the last year, the registration and reimbursement of new innovative molecules in typically female cancers, such as breast and gynecological cancers, but also in others. Indeed, oncology in this area is developing very rapidly. We are talking about treatment tailored to the patient, his disease and molecular abnormalities. Of course, the basis of this treatment is properly performed diagnostics: molecular genetic diagnostics, that is, on the cancer cell we look for abnormalities, which will be the basis for the implementation of treatment.

Unfortunately, these abnormalities occur in a few, at most a dozen percent, but we need to examine all patients. And we have two problems here. The first problem is that we have reimbursement for diagn...