Dorota Korycinska: Failure to use molecular diagnostics is a loss for patients and more costs for the system

What is the patients' perspective on the ongoing work at the Ministry of Health to introduce molecular-based oncology diagnostics into the basket of guaranteed services?

Last fall, the National Federation of Oncology submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Health to support the efforts of the Polish Society of Oncology to introduce molecular diagnostic tests for cancer diagnosis. I hope that this will finally happen, because theoretically the possibilities are there, but somewhere they elude us.

We have all the tools available, that is, there are diagnostic capabilities, we have great targeted therapies in the basket of benefits, and still it all gets diluted and as a result the patient loses out most of all. Prolonged diagnosis, if you don't use the latest capabilities, results in the disease progressing.

Very often patients go through a number of other different tests instead of using a modern method. As long as this doesn't change, we will all suffer losses from this, because the other background is that the system suffers financial losses. When a patient waits longer for treatment, the cancer grows, it becomes more difficult to treat, on top of that, the subsequent tests performed do not change much in this situation. This is a waste of financial resources.

There are provinces where this diagnostics is used and there are provinces where it is a paltry percentage. One should think carefully about this. Patient organizations are always in favor of introducing the most modern solutions as soon as possible, especially in oncology, in those diseases that have such a very dynamic course. This is important for families, for patients, for us as a society, but you also have to look at the financial cost of the health care system.