Efficient use of resources is essential in the fight against cancer

The effective use of health resources is essential to improve early cancer diagnosis and access to treatments to reduce mortality from this disease, agreed several specialists today.

During the Efe Health Forum "Cities Against Cancer" took place at the seventh edition of Roche Press Day, the project launched in the Colombian city of Cali (southwest) for the design, planning and implementation of solutions in the fight against cancer.

Camacho, external consultant of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), said that Cali has managed to be a model for Latin American countries in the fight against this disease, the second leading cause in Latin America.

challenge to achieve the convergence of all the actors who decided to work together as a city to decide what were their priorities in the diagnosis "Cali, with Asunción (Paraguay) and Porto Alegre (Brazil) are the cities that are part of the "Cities Against Cancer C / Can 2025" initiative, a project that seeks to help cities develop solutions for the fight against cancer

María Cristina Lesmes, Departmental Secretary of Health of the Valle del Cauca Department, whose capital is Cali, said that it was not easy, "We have successfully completed the diagnostic phase, we are building projects at the stage of seeking funding and we let's start also with the education of human resources, "he said.

Lesmes pointed out that one of the major challenges facing cities in the fight against cancer is accurate In fact, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), between 60% and 70% of cancer cases in the region are diagnosed at an advanced stage.

For Rolando Camacho, rapid diagnosis is one of UICC's main goals: "We seek early diagnosis, and for this, it is necessary for health professionals to be educated to that they know how to ask the patient to seek help from the first symptoms. "

Camacho acknowledged that Cali has progressed through the initiative of many obstacles" such as stigma because that many people are still not convinced that if cancer is treated early, it can be cured, "he said.

That is why the specialist emphasized the importance of awareness campaigns. As health professionals, they know how to detect the symptoms of the disease in time.

Carlos Estrada, managing director of Roche Colombia, acknowledged the importance of educating health personnel. he assured "is the starting point for treating any disease."

He also stressed the role of private initiative to achieve disease awareness because "the patient must understand the disease, be aware of the symptoms"

For its part, Lesmes acknowledged that the 39, one of the major challenges of cities is still funding the fight against this disease, "it is therefore necessary to find sources of resources, In this sense, Ramiro Guerrero, director of the Center for Studies on Social Protection (Proesa), said that even though it is true that resources are needed, the most important is to "spend." Well, instead of spending more. "

He explained that in the region there is There are fewer resources "and so we can not afford to spend badly", although he pointed out that this is not limited to money, but also on the other hand, Lesmes explained that the work of cities to fight against diseases such as cancer will be omplicated "because it will take many years to convince people to change their style. He also said that one of the main problems they face is the influence of anti-vaccine groups, which prevent, for example, girls from being vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) , which makes them finally, Rolando Camacho said that reducing by 25% the number of deaths due to cancer, one of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals for 2025 is not a goal achievable, although he stressed that the work of cities such as Cali, could help in the future to reduce the mortality of this disease in regions such as Latin America.