All.Can International, a worldwide non-profit group of cancer patients, launched the Korean unit on Thursday, drawing attention to how it will carry out local activities in how much scope. The Korean branch of All.Can is the first in Asia.
At an online press conference on Thursday, All.Can Korea released the results of a survey on the domestic environment of cancer treatment and activity plans.
All.Can Korea’s members include various local patient groups.
Lee Eun-young, secretary-general of the Korea Leukemia Patients Organization, presented All.Can Korea’s agenda and activity plans for 2021 at the press conference.
“We want to create a society where patients can maintain their daily routine during cancer treatment and return to their daily routine after treatment,” Lee said, explaining the purpose of the launch of All.Can Korea.
According to Lee, the cancer patient group will improve the inefficiency of cancer screening in low-income people, conduct an awareness improvement campaign for psychological support for cancer patients, and improve systems and laws to support cancer patients.
The group also released the results of the All.Can survey on 495 cancer patients over “Imbalance by Income among Cancer Patients.”
“Among socio-demographic factors such as age and sex, income had a remarkable effect on cancer diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up management,” said Professor Cheong Yoo-seok of family medicine at Dankook University Hospital, who prepared the survey.
All.Can Korea said it would use the survey results to begin projects to improve the treatment environment for cancer patients.
At the press conference, All.Can Korea received a question whether it could influence drug price negotiations between the government and pharmaceutical companies.
In response, Lee of the leukemia patient group said that if All.Can Korea tries to guarantee insurance benefits for specific drugs or intervene in drug price negotiations, it may undermine the group’s purpose of existence.
“If All.Can Korea becomes a means of drug price negotiations, it could hurt the solidarity activities of stakeholders. So, we will block such an attempt from the beginning,” she said.
The patient group will help cancer patients return to everyday life, not on drug price negotiations, Lee added.
Choi Sung-chul, representative of All.Can Korea, said drug price-related activities are the matters of individual patient groups. All.Can Korea members also include experts and companies, making it impossible for the group to wield influence on drug prices, he noted.
All.Can International was founded as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in 2016 to improve cancer care efficiency. Its members include patient organizations, research institutions, policymakers, expert groups, and funding partners.