In an unprecedented partnership, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) signed a technical cooperation agreement with the National Cancer Institute (Inca) for the development of new products and the incorporation of technologies, improving oncological treatments. The initiative seeks to reduce costs for the Unified Health System (SUS), which in 2022 alone invested BRL 4 billion in procedures for cancer patients. The agreement was signed on Tuesday (13), during the 8th Big Data Forum in Oncology. The event – promoted by the All Together Against Cancer movement (TJCC) and the Oncology Observatory – was held in partnership with Fiocruz’s Center for Strategic Studies. The agreement provides for improvement in diagnosis, precision public health and identification of better therapeutic alternatives. There is also expectation of the development of new therapies through biological or synthetic products and new technologies with great potential for use that are arriving in Brazil. Inca is an auxiliary body of the Ministry of Health in the development and coordination of integrated actions for the prevention and control of cancer in the country. As a producer of inputs, Fiocruz seeks to meet the demands of the SUS regarding chronic diseases, mainly cancer. That was the starting point for the agreement, according to Marco Aurélio Krieger, vice president of Production and Innovation at Fiocruz. “This cooperation favors an important interaction between the researchers of the two institutions, and may yield more results for precision public health, in the validation and development of new tools for the area of medicines, diagnostics and biologicals and advanced therapies”, he explained. Krieger. Inca’s Research and Innovation coordinator, João Viola, highlighted the cooperation between the institutions, strengthening relationships in teaching, research and innovation in the area of cancer. “We are joining efforts to solve problems in the area of oncology, as well as to develop knowledge about points considered strategic”, he emphasized. Costs Last week Fiocruz released the study on the costs of cancer treatment in the SUS in 2022. A cost of BRL 4 billion was revealed. During the 8th Big Data Forum in Oncology, the details of the survey were presented on a panel by Nina Melo, research coordinator at the Brazilian Association of Lymphoma and Leukemia (Abrale) and the Oncology Observatory. Entitled How much does it cost to treat a cancer patient in the SUS?, the study was produced based on federal spending, not including state, municipal, philanthropic and private figures. The panel also discussed aspects that contribute to the high cost of treating patients with cancer in the SUS. According to the survey, the advanced stages of the disease are directly related to higher treatment costs, impacting both the patient’s quality of life and health financing. Expenditure in the health area, in 2022, exceeded R$ 136 billion. Of this total, more than BRL 62 billion was spent on hospital and outpatient care and, of this amount, almost BRL 4 billion was spent on oncological treatment, divided into outpatient treatment (77%), surgeries (13%) and hospitalizations (10% ). Nina also reported that there was an increase of 402% – from 2018 to 2022 – in the average cost of cancer treatment procedures (chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy). “A procedure that, in 2018, cost BRL 151.33, rose to BRL 758.93 in 2022. The average cost of hospitalization reached BRL 1,082.22 and the cost of surgery reached BRL 3,406.07”, he specified. . in the way expenses are made. We have no real incentive for early diagnosis actions. To that extent, we are paying for the high complexity and the systemic treatment has been increasing in price, “he pondered. According to him, it is urgent to be able to structure the expense in oncology in a way that can reduce mortality, improve and increase disease-free survival and not just pay for new incorporations and increase the cost without assessing whether this is impacting people’s health.
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