URO-ONCOLOGY SYMPOSIUM: EXPANDED DRUG ACCESS TO BOOST CANCER TREATMENT

FOČA, OCTOBER 9 /SRNA/ - Cancer is increasingly being diagnosed at younger ages, while access to new medicines and procedures covered by the Republika Srpska Health Insurance Fund is expected to improve treatment outcomes for urological cancers, participants at the Uro-Oncology Symposium at the Faculty of Medicine in Foča said today.

Jelena Vladičić Mašić, head of the Oncology and Hematology Department at Foča University Hospital, said malignant diseases were becoming increasingly common, with more than 600,000 new cases of bladder cancer diagnosed worldwide each year and more than 220,000 deaths from the disease. The symposium, jointly organized by the University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine, focuses on three types of cancer - kidney, bladder and prostate cancer. Mašić said the symposium was prompted by a decision of the Republika Srpska Health Insurance Fund to expand the list of medicines and therapies available for treating these diseases. "This significantly improves our daily clinical practice and the treatment outcomes of our patients," she added. Zoran Šarenac, head of the Urology Department at Foča University Hospital, said prostate cancer was now among the most common cancers in men, ranking roughly alongside lung cancer. "Patients are getting younger. With prostate cancer, for example, the age threshold is considerably lower than it was 10 or 15 years ago, which is why preventive examinations are now recommended for all men over 45, compared with over 50 in the past," Šarenac said. According to him, around 130 prostate biopsies are performed annually at Foča University Hospital, with cancer confirmed in 70 to 80 per cent of cases. He stressed that progress had been made in treatment, diagnostics and cooperation with patients. Banja Luka radiation oncologist Slavica Marić said treatment combines radiotherapy, surgery, chemotherapy and hormone therapy, making communication and the exchange of experience among doctors particularly important. "We can be proud of having a radiotherapy center that is on par with centers elsewhere in Europe. We have virtually new equipment and a full range of techniques, from the simplest to the most complex. Today's topic is urology, and we are achieving excellent treatment results in this field," Marić said. Radmila Rašeta, an oncologist at the University Clinical Center of Republika Srpska in Banja Luka, said uro-oncology patients had until now been underserved when it came to access to medicines covered by the Health Insurance Fund. "Thanks to the newly expanded drug list and immunotherapy covered by the Fund, that will no longer be the case. There is a large population of uro-oncology patients, so we hope the medicines will become available very soon," Rašeta said. She added that the institution records around 120 new kidney cancer cases each year, with metastases present in about one third of patients. Faculty of Medicine Dean Dejan Bokonjić said this was the 12th professional gathering held at the faculty this year and stressed the importance of using such events to discuss protocols and procedures for adding certain medicines to approved lists, as well as other challenges in oncology. The symposium in Foča is bringing together surgeons, radiation and medical oncologists, as well as doctors specializing in histopathological and radiological diagnostics of these diseases.