In the battle with cancer but without therapy, Oncology patients provide their own medications

Patients at the Oncology Clinic are facing a severe shortage of therapy that is supposed to be provided free of charge by the clinic itself.

However, patients are providing it themselves, thus increasing the financial burden of thousands of euros for a single dose. For many of them, this is a battle that cannot be won without financial support.

Upon entering the Oncology Clinic, the pain and challenge does not only come from the diagnosis.

Challenges continue to mount for patients diagnosed with cancer when essential drugs for treatment must be obtained on their own.

The same thing has been happening for several months now at the Oncology Clinic at UCCK.

The biggest shortage, according to patients, is of the medication "AVASTIN", used as a therapy that aims to stop the growth of tumors.

And its market price reaches thousands of euros.

"There is a shortage of "Avastin" and it is edoxancytoplatelet. I am not taking the latter at the moment, but my friends are telling me that I do not have it. The therapy I am taking costs me 1000-1100 euros. Others are helping me to pay the money. For one dose, every two weeks. Plus I have "Zymet" and I take it every two months. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. I have been treated for 10 years, at first it was yes, now it is not," said Violeta Memaj, a patient at the Oncology Clinic.

Concerns about the shortage have been expressed by the association "It's Worth Living", led by Valbona Kastrati, who once faced this disease herself.

In addition to the absence, Kastrati is also concerned about the silence of institutions regarding this issue.

"If a patient's therapy is delayed for two months, this is dangerous for them because cancer does not wait but acts. I appeal to the Ministry of Health and the Oncology Institute to take urgent steps for this developing problem. I strongly request that they come out with a statement on the reason why the medications in the clinic are in short supply while in pharmacies those medications are available but the price is too high. I can freely say that we are not asking for mercy, we are asking for human support. The state should be close to us, not leave us behind. Because life does not come back and I have lost three women in my association because cancer forces you to be strong materially," said Valbona Kastrati, a cancer survivor.

Others who were treated at this clinic about two years ago say that the shortage has been permanent and that is why they went to seek treatment in Tirana.

"When I was training at QKUK, there was a shortage, it was carboclatine, it was always replaced with something that I had been forbidden by my oncologist in Tirana, I still did not take it because I did not want replacements. I bought it myself. But now most of it is missing, not to say all of it. I have many friends who have been united by the disease and they have told me about it. Someone is spending up to 10 thousand euros, they go for 1600-2000 for a dose every three weeks. They do not have a shortage because in Tirana, they have offered me everything, there is no shortage. Their price is the same as my friend who buys it every week in Kosovo. The minimum is 1600. My request to the institutions is to supply it quickly because knowing that we need it a lot, both in terms of medication and nutrition for an oncology patient, they cost a lot. At least the drugs should be provided by state institutions so that we do not have to worry about how to raise the money to buy a therapy," he said. Leoreta Fondaj, diagnosed with breast cancer.

The Oncology Clinic did not prefer to comment, instructing the television station to contact the information office at SHSKUK. But the latter did not respond to the television station either.