At the scientific workshop "clinical pharmacy in the treatment of many types of cancer and Medical Physics for the accurate treatment era" held from December 18-19, Prof. Dr. Le Van Quang, Director of K Hospital, shared: Chemotherapy is a key method in cancer treatment but often causes many side effects, affecting healthy cells, causing patients to be tired and exhausted during treatment. The new drugs have significantly overcome this limitation.
The current destination has developed to the third generation, directly targeting specific gene changes in cancer cells. Thanks to that, the hospital stay time is shortened, and patients do not need to be given chemicals for as long as before. Statistics show that this method helps prolong the life of disease-free overtime to 36.8 months - a meaningful number for survival in cancer treatment.
In addition to the final drug, immunotherapy has also recorded important strides. Previously, high costs were a major barrier due to drug monopoly. Currently, the market has seen biological equivalent drugs with lower prices but still ensuring treatment effectiveness.
A typical example is Pembroria (Russia) which has just been licensed for import to Vietnam, priced at about 18 million VND per bottle, much lower than Keytruda (60120 million VND according to the old treatment) but is equally effective as popular drugs in the West.
K Hospital is promoting bidding for Pembroria drugs, opening up treatment opportunities for many patients facing financial difficulties. However, the hospital's leaders emphasized that doctors need to consider carefully when developing a drug coordination regimen, to avoid the situation of high cost but not as expected results.
"Canceer treatment is multi-tended treatment. Especially in the era of immune treatment and targeted treatment, there are more and more new drugs, new regimens with complex drug effects and the risk of drug interaction, some unwanted effects. This poses an increasingly high requirement for the use of drugs in a personalized, safe, reasonable and effective manner.
Therefore, the field of Clinical Pharmacy plays an increasingly important role, not only in consulting on the selection, monitoring and optimization of treatment regimens, but also in managing unwanted effects, drug interactions, improving compliance with treatment and closely coordinating with clinical specialties, contributing to comprehensive care for cancer patients", emphasized Prof. Dr. Le Van Quang.
The combination of new-generation destination drugs, immunotherapy and radiotherapy is opening a new era in cancer treatment, helping patients live longer, have fewer side effects and improve quality of life. This is also a testament to the continuous efforts of K Hospital in applying advanced technology and medicine for patients.
Permanent Deputy Minister of Health Vu Manh Ha said that clinical pharmacy plays an important role in interdisciplinary coordination, throughout the entire treatment process, from choosing a regimen, using safe and reasonable drugs to monitoring effectiveness and toxicity, contributing to improving the quality of care and treatment outcomes for patients.
In particular, cancer and other non-communicable diseases are a major burden for the health system due to high incidence and mortality rates, complex, prolonged treatment and consuming many resources. The treatment of these diseases requires a multi-modal, multi-specialty approach to optimize effectiveness and safety for patients.
Currently, clinical pharmacy activities in our country have been regulated in Decree 131/2020/ND-CP of the Government, to affirm the role of clinical pharmacy in the medical examination and treatment system. After 5 years of implementation, clinical pharmacy activities at medical facilities have achieved certain results, although there are still many difficulties and challenges.
