Posted by Michael Wonder on 01 Oct 2019
Cancer medicines need to be part of the plan
1 October 2019 - BCAC is extremely disappointed to read that access to cancer medicines does not appear to be a priority for New Zealand’s new cancer control agency according to its national director, Diana Sarfati, in a recent interview.
‘The new cancer agency represents a great opportunity to improve cancer care and outcomes, and it should have people at its heart’, says BCAC Chair Libby Burgess. ‘We are hoping that it will be an inclusive organisation that values the wisdom and contributions of New Zealanders with lived experience of cancer’.
Medical oncology is a vital component in the treatment of the vast majority of diagnosed cancers. For example, breast cancer specialists have stated that medicines play a central role in curing early breast cancer and substantially prolonging life and improving quality of life in advanced breast cancer. ‘That the agency’s director does not consider cancer medicines to be a high priority is alarming’, says Libby.
