Treatment costs a pot of gold

On the occasion of Mother’s Day last month, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) launched a campaign to encourage Lebanese women to check for cervical cancer. Easily treatable when detected early, cervical cancer affects the uterus and is the third most common cancer among women worldwide. In the United States however, the disease is much less prevalent due to the well-established practice of annual pap smear tests; an example showing the importance of awareness and early detection campaigns.  According to the World Health Organization, the global burden of cancer can be reduced and controlled by implementing three strategies: prevention, early detection, and “managing” patients with cancer. The latter however, is a complicated and extremely costly affair as cancer requires a lengthy multidisciplinary treatment — often a combination of surgery, chemo and radiotherapy. Hospitals need to invest millions in the latest technology and patients need to cough up tens of thousands