On 6 September 2019, the exhibition stood in front of the main entrance to the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw. It will be on display until 12 September. Beautiful portraits of its protagonists were taken by the excellent photographer Marek Straszewski.
The organisers of the exhibition: EuropaColon Poland Foundation, the Polish Stoma Society POL-ILKO and the Polish Coalition of Oncology Patients would like to forcefully say once again: patients with advanced colorectal cancer want and can live longer!
Colorectal cancer kills approximately 12,000 people in Poland every year. Polish patients are treated less effectively than in countries such as Turkey or Lithuania. From countries with the best treatment effects such as Belgium, for example, the difference in the length of the so-called 5-year survival is about 15%. This means that about 2200 people die each year who could still be alive. The problem is the lack of appropriate treatment options in line III and IV. In the standards and recommendations of international scientific societies (ESMO, NCCN), 2 drugs are recommended for 3rd and 4th line treatment of advanced metastatic colorectal cancer, which significantly prolong the life of patients. These drugs (one or both) are reimbursed in 26 European countries, including countries with similar or lower level of affluence than Poland, including in Hungary, Slovakia and more recently in Romania and Bulgaria (!).
Patients, after successful treatment in the first two lines, often remain in good or even very good shape. This is exactly what Agnieszka and Peter were like. They were independent, did not require care and worked. But, as they said themselves, at a certain point the health care system stopped noticing them, they felt abandoned, they were not given any more chances.
Every day, 33 people die from colorectal cancer. Around 1,500 patients could benefit from the treatment currently being sought. The burden on the budget is a cost in the order of PLN 7 million. The oncoindex indicates a reimbursement level for the treatment of colorectal cancer of (minus) -75, where 0 (zero) means treatment at a level that fulfils global recommendations.
The protagonists of the exhibition - all of whom are colon cancer patients - have decided to show their faces and tell their stories. They all ask "Look into our eyes - we want to live longer !".
You can still sign the petition for urgent access to 3rd and 4th line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
