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One such patient felt the progress of medical innovation when he learned just a month ago that drugs had destroyed widespread metastases, according to a media report.
According to the National Cancer Institute, almost 700 new cases of kidney cancer are diagnosed in Lithuania every year. The highest incidence of this oncological disease is seen among people aged 50 to 70 years, and it affects men more often than women.
Although kidney cancer is generally easily cured in the early stages, there has not been a wide range of treatment options for patients with advanced stages of the disease in Lithuania until now. However, the situation has changed recently with the introduction of new therapies in Lithuania, which until now have been widely used in other European countries. They opened individualized treatment opportunities for patients of all risk groups.
From a 9-centimeter tumor to degenerate metastases
Vilnius Lion heard the diagnosis of kidney cancer four years ago, at the age of 54. The man admits that if he had seen the doctors earlier, after experiencing the first symptoms of the disease, the diagnosis could have been a bit easier.
“At first I noticed blood in my urine, but I ignored the first case. When this happened again, I told the doctor who prescribed the ultrasound for me, but I had to wait several months. While I waited, even more blood appeared, the pain began, so I went straight to the Santara clinics. There I heard that there is a large tumor in the left kidney measuring up to 9 centimeters. I discovered that there are also metastases, “says Leon.
Over the past four years, the man underwent various treatments, underwent up to four tumor removal surgeries, but the metastases have spread again. Since last August, León has been receiving targeted therapy, which has been given as first-line treatment to critically ill patients since this spring. The man is glad that this type of treatment is available in Lithuania and his results are encouraging.
“It turned out that a month ago the doctors no longer found metastases, which made me very happy. Because the side effects affected me so badly, the doctors reduced the dose of the medicine they gave me, so my well-being improved significantly. I can go back to normal life, ”says the man.
Leon says the illness has taught him several important things that anyone dealing with the illness should know.
“First of all, there is no need to delay if blood has appeared in the urine. The second thing, no matter how you try to lead a healthy life, if you are already sick, the disease will not be affected by a healthy lifestyle, but for timely and effective treatment. You need to believe and trust the doctors. The third thing that can coexist with cancer is simply the importance of enjoying life and making the proper use of the time available. And most importantly, do not close yourself off We have to talk about our disease, mutual help is very important for everyone, “says Leon.
Opportunities for those who did not have them
According to Skaistė Tulytė, a chemical oncologist at the Santara Clinics, one of the most common forms of kidney cancer, which is especially important today, is renal cell carcinoma.
For many years, she was treated with an immunotherapy drug, but it was ineffective. However, targeted therapy products have been available to Lithuanian patients for several years, and their range has expanded even further this year.
“At present, there are four options for the first-line treatment of kidney cancer; there are many in oncology. When prescribing the treatment, we take into account the patient’s condition, certain indicators: how their organs work, how strong it is, then we choose targeted therapy or immunotherapy drugs, ”says S. Tulytė.
Clinical trials have shown that new targeted therapies are of great importance in patients with more severe kidney cancer who have not previously had any treatment options.
“When the disease has progressed and has spread to various organs, the patient complains of pain in the bones, shortness of breath and certain organs begin to accumulate pressurizing fluids, causing pain in the chest or abdomen. Now, with intensive treatment, we can completely suppress these symptoms in a few months. With the help of new drugs, it can be seen that sometimes the metastases, the sources of tumor spread, disappear completely and can be extinguished for several years ”, says the doctor.
According to S. Tulytė, with a wide variety of treatment methods today, the main challenge is the primary diagnosis of kidney cancer. The disease is often caught too late, and patients do not always get to the doctor in time. This is due not only to the pandemic situation, which slowed patients’ access to doctors, but also to the form of the disease itself. Kidney cancer develops slowly, without symptoms for a long time, so patients seek medical attention late.
Availability of innovations in Lithuania
According to A. Gaižauskienė, Lithuania has been at the bottom of the list of European countries for many years in terms of availability of innovative treatment methods. To change this situation, it is important not only that the treatment methods enter the Lithuanian market, but also the timeliness of the compensation.
“The availability of innovative drugs is especially important for patients with cancer diseases, including kidney cancer, but in Lithuania their treatment is becoming a real challenge due to insufficient choice of drugs. This is usually due to excessively long processing times. As a result, our patients are forced to wait for the necessary treatment that can improve their health and quality of life, ”says the director of the Association for the Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry.
According to her, it is very important that today, kidney cancer patients already have a wider choice of treatment methods, but more effective regulatory solutions could have led to their arrival even faster. Perhaps this would also have fundamentally changed the lives of some patients.
2020. According to the WAIT study (Waiting to Access Innovative Therapies), in Germany the average time from drug approval to patient availability is 120 days, while in Lithuania this period reaches 780 days. Compared to other countries, the process takes longer in only four countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 797 days, Poland, 815 days, and Romania, 883 days.
“The situation in Lithuania could be much better, because the reasons why our patients have to wait so long for innovative medicines have been repeatedly mentioned to the responsible institutions and decision makers. From the point of view of public finances , Lithuanian health sector must become a priority area: according to the state funding currently allocated to health, our country has up to 2%. It is behind the OECD average of 6.6%. GDP. This is one of the main disturbances, due to the fact that patients in our country have less access to medicines ”, says A. Gaižauskienė.
