The government’s attempts to address the lack of medicines and the cut of 157 billion pesos in the final stretch of the administration of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to attend oncological diseases increased the cost of treatment for patients with breast cancer and reduced early detection in the public health system by 45.3 percent.
“Breast cancer is a very complicated disease, but in Mexico it is usually more difficult to face because we have a problem of shortage of oncology medicationsbut also because of the cuts to the health budget that have led us to detect this disease late,” said Alma Ortiz, deputy director general of the Mexican Association for the Fight Against Cancer (AMLCC).
In Mexico, breast cancer is the leading cause of death due to malignant tumor in the country. In 2023, of the 89,633 deaths recorded, 8,034 were attributed to this disease and, of the total deaths, 7,992 were women and 42 men.
The entities that reported the highest number of deaths were CDMX, State of Mexico, Jalisco and Nuevo León.
“Every year an average of 31 thousand new cases of breast cancer are detected in Mexico and although this is alarming, today patients continue to face a system with a lack of mammography equipment that causes 70 percent of cases “They are detected late,” warned Alma Ortiz, who pointed out that screening coverage through mammography fell from 22.7 to 12.4 percent in the last year.
He explained that late detection caused the annual cost for the public health system of a patient with breast cancer to rise between four and up to six times compared to a patient with early detection
“By being detected late, it costs the public health system 729,670 pesos per year on average, but if that same patient had been detected at the beginning of the disease, it would cost the health system 195,000 pesos per year. But not only that, it also increases the patient’s chances of moving forward and for the treatment to be effective by 57 percent,” he said.
Cuts limit care and access to medications
In the final stretch of his government, former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador cut 157 billion pesos from the money in the Health Fund for Wellbeing (Fonsabi) that would be destined to attend childhood, breast and cervical cancer.
To size the cutout, the Mexico Evalúa platform He pointed out that the amount would be comparable to the 138 billion pesos of the 2023 budget for the Mayan Train or 31 times the budget allocated in 2024 for the seven autonomous organizations that the government has sought to disappear since 2018.
The Fonsabi cut prevented the payment of 7,900 treatments for cancer patients who do not have social security; However, this is not the only problem, since the Drug shortages added to the causes that prevented patients from accessing breast cancer treatment.
“The shortage of oncological medications has been another of the factors that have affected the fight against canceressential medications for treatment such as trastuzumab y paclitaxel “They have been conspicuous by their absence in the health sector, forcing many patients to interrupt their treatments, reducing the effectiveness of the therapy and worsening their survival prognoses,” noted the AMLCC director.
According to México Evalúa, in 2023 the López Obrador government stopped filling 15 million prescriptions for patients in the public medical servicesof which 2 million were prescriptions for childhood, breast and cervical cancer. This figure represented five times more than the prescriptions not filled in 2018, the last year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government.
It is urgent to promote self-exploration
During October, breast cancer awareness month, campaigns to promote self-exploration and with this the possibility of early detection is essential to increase the chances of success in treatments.
“Early detection is essential to save lives. By using technology applied to prevention and innovations that facilitate access, women receive the power to take control of their health, proactively take care of themselves and combat the myths and taboos around cancer,” said Mercedes Gutiérrez, CEO of the Timser laboratory.
He added that, to achieve this objective, not only a robust health system is necessary, but also collaboration between the private, public and educational sectors, since, he said, the disease prevention It is directly related to the well-being of society.
“Self-care empowers women to make informed decisions about their health. Adopting healthy lifestyles, carrying out regular medical check-ups and being attentive to changes in the body are fundamental actions to reduce the risk of cancer,” the directive said.
