About 20 SCLC lung cancer patients and their families sent a letter to the drug basket committee, in an excited call: "Do not abandon us" • Want to fund a new drug
Sami Elimelech
A group of lung cancer patients, who fear they will be left untreated, sent an excited appeal to members of the drug basket committee.
Patients ask "Do not leave us untreated".
These are patients with "small cell" lung cancer, a very violent and deadly lung cancer.
After years of no new treatments, in the last two years new drugs have been added for patients with this type of lung cancer.
The drugs Impinzi and Tsentric were also ranked third in terms of their importance and necessity among doctors.
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the most violent of all cancers, and most people diagnosed with it will die from it in less than a year.
According to studies, the average survival time of patients does not exceed one year, and only 2% of patients will survive after five years from diagnosis.
For more than 30 years, treatment options for patients have been limited to chemotherapy, and in some cases radiation therapy.
However, in the last two years, two immunotherapeutic therapies have been added, which activate the immune system.
Studies examining these treatments have shown a statistically significant improvement in patient survival.
The treatment with an impenetrable drug is intended for 167 patients at a total cost of more than NIS 26 million.
Studies have found that a group of patients will respond to it, but not all, so the dilemma of the basket committee members is particularly great.
Yesterday, about 20 patients and their families sent a letter to the drug basket committee, urging them to include treatment in the basket.
"We are all members of the Israeli Association for Lung Cancer - a community of patients and their families who help each other and reach out in times of need. No one deserves to get lung cancer," the patients and their families write in a letter received by Israel Today.
"We are eagerly awaiting your decisions that may affect our lives and the lives of our loved ones. We ask you, do not abandon us."
Sami Elimelech (70) from the Krayot, who has lung cancer, is also one of the signatories to the letter.
Elimelech admits that from the beginning of the process he opposed chemotherapy: "I just wanted to feel good. I was afraid of turning an active person into a burden on the environment. Only after a conversation with a social worker and pressure from the children who cared about my health did I agree to start treatment."
Sammy's treatment plan included six rounds of chemotherapy and treatment with an impenetrable drug.
"Thanks to the treatment I started to feel better, I started to move a little. I should continue to receive the treatment and very much hope that it will be included in the health basket this year, and I call on the committee members to approve it. The patients can not wait another year."
