Cancer patients to be able to participate in clinical trials

A clinical trials unit – where cancer patients would be able to receive new, cutting-edge treatment during testing and verification stages, at no cost to themselves – was planned under a government five-year cancer treatment plan that will be launched in the first weeks of March.

Health Minister Chris Fearne, who was replying to questions put to him by opposition MP David Agius and Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis, said that the government would be signing up to all relevant codes and protocols before launching the service.

“All new cancer medication and treatments undergo extensive trial periods before being fully certified,” he said. “Patients would be able to benefit from the latest, cutting-edge treatments at no cost to themselves.”

Other measures include the introduction of new equipment and treatments allowing for the treatment of liver cancer without the need for operating on the patient, as well as measures on medication for prostate cancer.

Fearne said that 710 patients died of cancer between January and September 2016, including one patient who was under 15 years of age.

403 of the cancer victims were men and that most of these male patients had been suffering from lung cancer, while breast cancern was the most common cancern among the women, he said.

Fearne said that the majority of patients that died of cancer were between 65 and 74 years old, while 51 were over 85 years of age.