No Room for Corruption in the Fight for a Cure: November is Lung, Prostate, Stomach and Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
Cancer starts when certain cells become damaged (DNA mutation) and start multiplying out of control, to form a mass known as a tumor. These rebel cells are not fulfilling their normal task. The danger is that they can penetrate adjacent tissues, or migrate to other body parts (metastasis) interfering with how your organs function. And it’s not one disease, but more than 100 different types, depending on which cell goes wrong first.
Lung Cancer arises in the lungs, the pair of spongy organs in your chest that take up oxygen. The most common cause of the condition is smoking, however it can develop in nonsmokers. The disease is frequently not noticeable until an advanced stage, with symptoms like a persistent cough, coughing up blood, chest pains and shortness of breath.
Prostate Cancer begins in the prostate, a small walnut shaped gland in men that produces seminal fluid. It is among the most frequent of cancers in men. It is usually extremely slow growing and may not be symptomatic at first. In its more advanced forms, it can cause urinary difficulties a problems during urination (such as a slow or weak stream) or blood in the semen.
Pancreatic Cancer starts in the pancreas, an organ deep in your abdomen that’s responsible for creating digestive juices and hormones to help regulate blood sugar. It is often referred to as a “silent” disease, because when symptoms such as jaundice, belly pain and weight loss do appear, it is typically only after the tumor has already grown or spread. This makes it especially hard to pick up early, which is why so many people die from the disease.
Stomach (Gastric) Cancer, cancer that forms in the stomach lining. Long-term infection with a bacterium called H. pylori is an important risk factor. Diets rich in smoked, salted or otherwise processed cooked foods are also a risk. Symptoms can entail low appetite, unexplained weight loss, belly pain and feeling full after eating very little. As with pancreatic cancer, it is frequently discovered when it has already advanced.
Treatment costs for these diseases can go over a million, with chemotherapy sessions alone costing between ₱20,000 to ₱120,000 each. The financial strain begins even before treatment commences, as diagnostic procedures can themselves amount to six figures, placing tremendous pressure on families from the outset. With average daily wages of ₱435 to ₱695, and a basic cost of living at ₱300 to ₱500 per day, there’s simply nothing left. This means countless workers cannot save for the future or handle unexpected costs, despite working fulltime. This becomes a catastrophe if a member of the family is diagnosed with cancer. Treatment can easily exceed a million of pesos. For someone who makes ₱695 a day, this is an impossible expense. The current minimum wage is simply not enough to live on and so when a family gets a cancer diagnosis, they often have to abandon treatment because they can’t afford it. This economic reality fundamentally transforming cancer from a medical crisis into a financial catastrophe
Families are caught between low salaries and corruption, in which stolen government money means less help for hospitals. If policy makers really wanted to solve this, the government would have to two-step: Shut down corruption in earnest so that public money benefits individuals, and raise wages so workers can make it through a crisis and give a fighting chance. We need both to build a country where a day’s work can pay for a day’s needs, and where getting sick doesn’t mean financial ruin for your family.
When the government loses billions in corruption, it has a direct and negative effects on cancer treatment. Corruption makes everything more expensive. When officials steal money meant for public health, it means there’s less medicine and fewer machines and equipment in hospitals and this leaves families paying more out of their own pockets. With that, for a lot of people the treatment becomes unaffordable and they stop doing it. Every peso that is stolen is a treatment that a patient doesn’t get. In other words, corruption isn’t just a theft of funds, it’s also a thief in the night that steals access to health care and, ultimately, lives by rendering lifesaving interventions impossible, far from what ordinary people can afford.
In the urgent fight against cancer, there is absolutely no room for corruption. Every peso stolen from health budgets inflates costs, denies patients treatment, and betrays public trust. To win this fight we must use all our money properly to improve hospitals and make medicine cheaper and simultaneously, we must empower our people by implementing a significant wage increase. By this we can make sure that a cancer diagnosis brings a chance of healing and not just a mountain of bills.