Tbilisi City Hall is allocating three million GEL for a program to treat patients with early stage breast cancer in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi.
The city’s Mayor Davit Narmania revealed the aim of the initiative was to reduce treatment costs for breast cancer patients.
This is an unprecedented case when state finances early breast cancer treatment. Tbilisi City Hall will be the first [institution] to implement this program,” said Narmania.
People who suffer from HER2-positive breast cancer (I-III stages) will receive financial assistance to buy specialist drug Herceptin. Herceptin is a targeted therapy for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
Narmania said it was important the financial assistance was available to the people who needed it the most.
Cancer patients with low incomes (who scored lower than 150,000 on a local social rating) would be fully financed by the state while people above this threshold would receive 80 percent state funding, said Narmania.
Over the course of one-year treatment (13 vials of Herceptin) socially vulnerable people will be eligible to receive 35,000 GEL (about $14,056 USD) while the remainder will be eligible to receive 20,080 GEL ($8,064 USD) financial assistance.
The Tbilisi Mayor said early treatment of breast cancer decreased the risk of relapse by 40-45 percent.