Patients and clinicians await Health Ministry decision

For more than two years, we have been talking about the need for an additional benefit in the form of comprehensive genomic profiling. For whom are these tests necessary?

This is a genetic test, quite advanced, dedicated to specific clinical situations. It is not necessary to implement this service in all oncology patients, while in selected groups, such as patients with ovarian cancer or patients with lung cancer, such testing is most applicable. It can be said that it is even necessary in them in order to properly select therapy and properly conduct the entire treatment process.

I understand that the inclusion criteria for such a study are described.

The criteria have been described, that is, it has been specified exactly what group of patients can benefit from such a study and in which centers such a study can be performed. So, from a formal point of view, scientific societies, scientists, representatives of medical fields, have selected those groups of patients to whom this study can be implemented. On the other hand, unfortunately, work is still underway on the implementation of this study, i.e. the Ministry of Health has not yet given a final decision on whether this study will be included in the basket of guaranteed services, although the AOTMiT, back in 2023, issued a successful opinion on the application of this study, that this study is applicable and can be implemented. On the other hand, to date, unfortunately, no final decisions have been made, so we cannot yet fund this study.

So all we lack is a decision from the Ministry of Health?

Yes. All that is needed is for the Minister to sign the approval, or for it to be approved by the relevant authorities in the Ministry of Health.

Would the Medical Fund be an appropriate source of funding for this benefit?

There are different voices about where this test, genetic testing in general, should be funded from. For me, it is difficult to judge where the funding for this type of testing is to be found. On the other hand, the subject of the Medical Fund is often raised, because from it genetic testing in people up to the age of 18, that is, all advanced diagnostics, is to be financed. For this there is already a positive decision, and there are funds there to enable diagnostics supposedly for people up to the age of 18. So it seems natural that this advanced diagnostics in selected cases in adults can also be financed just from the Medical Fund. At the same time, we did a lot of calculations, and as I pointed out earlier, this benefit is not dedicated in a very large group and even a narrow one. Thus, the implementation and costs of the service itself should not be high, and the benefits of selecting therapy on the basis of this examination and then managing the patient, in whom the therapy will be implemented, often costing several hundred thousand zlotys per patient, this examination valued at about 6-8 thousand zlotys at a time, it seems, will not cause a large financial burden.