Prostate Cancer : general mobilization for the repayment of the radium-223

Jirsak/epictura

Published the 29.12.2017 at 16: 05

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Keywords :

cancer of the prostatemétastasesradium 223remboursement

Each year in France, approximately 9,000 men die from prostate cancer. If it is a disease primarily affecting elderly men, usually around 70 years of age, it is no less important for these patients, to increase their chances of living. For this instance, and according to studies and the best experts, there is a treatment : the dichloride radium-223, marketed in France under the name of Xofigo®.

Approximately 5000 € injection

It is a treatment administered in the form of injection, and up to six times maximum. The only problem is that it has not been reimbursed and is very expensive. Between 4000 and 5000€ to the injection. What think twice. And loss of quality of life.
For this reason, several leading medical specialists cancer among men, among whom were professors Christophe Hennequin and Stéphane Culine (Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris) or Karim Fizazi (Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif), and patient associations (APCLP-CERHOM) gathered to send a mail solemn to the Minister of health, has revealed to Le Parisien. Their goal : to stop “walking around” by the administration, a refund, and thus facilitate access to treatment in France.

A treatment available elsewhere in Europe

Authorized on the european market since 2013, the dichloride radium 223 is still almost inaccessible in France. As A comparison, it has since been prescribed to 64 times in france, compared with more than 3000 times in Germany.
Is not reimbursed, physicians may not prescribe it externally except to make people pay for the sick. If this is the case during a hospitalization, it is often the administration of the hospital blocks. Because it is the hospital that must pay on its budgetary allocation to the treatment, but it can’t support that type of cost in a time of fiscal austerity.
In addition, the dichloride radium 223 is not a cure. Effective on the patients of prostate cancer to an advanced stage, it helps you save time, lengthen the life and improve the quality of life by reducing pain.

The Ministry of health already alerted

There are more than a year, under the government of François Hollande, a doctor had already tried to make things happen. Pierre-Luc Etienne, oncologist at Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’armor), has helped one of his patients to contact the government and the health authorities. This patient in question, already put forward its bone pain, which could be addressed through the dichloride radium-223. But his letters remained unanswered.
Dr. Pierre-Luc Etienne, deplores, in part, the responsibility of the laboratories, who set prices well above costs of production. And this, at the peril of the health of the sick.

So far, the ministry of health, Agnès Buzyn, has not yet responded to the letter sent Thursday.