MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti) – Some 300,000 Russians die from cancer every year – ten times more than in traffic accidents across the country, the head of an anti-cancer non-profit organization said on Monday, which marks World Cancer Day.
“Almost two percent of the population are oncology patients,” said Dmitry Borisov, who heads the Equal Rights to Life NGO. “Unfortunately, cancer is still not the priority for our state leaders,” he said at the opening ceremony of the Movement Against Cancer forum.
Borisov estimated that in developed countries, the budget allocates around €200 per cancer patient, while in Russia this sum is as low as €19 euro per person.
“With such funding, one can’t say that oncological patients receive enough drugs and treatment from the state,” he said.
Moscow’s chief oncologist Anatoly Makhson said on Monday that some 221,000 city residents are cancer patients, including 172,000 who have recovered.
Some 34,500 can undergo medical treatment, while 15,000 cannot be cured, he said.