Author: Aurora Shpataj
Mirela has been fighting to survive for 4 years. With a beautiful floral headscarf, placed on her head to hide her hair loss, she shows that she has been treated for 4 years at the Oncology hospital of the 'Mother Teresa' university hospital center in Tirana. Asked when she was faced with the sad news, Mirela says that she was 40 years old, when she noticed that her breasts were no longer the same as before.
'Ah, I remember that day like today, I would say cursed. It totally ruined my life and my routine. I was at work, when I felt a sharp stabbing in my chest and immediately ran to the health center to inquire"- says Mirela, for 'Sinjalizo', while her hands tremble when she talks about that moment that changed her life 360 degrees.
With a sobbing voice, she recounts the first knock on hospital doors for her illness.
'I still have the doctor's face and words in my memory. 'We need to do a mammogram urgently to know what stage we are at'- says Mirela.
Unprepared and uninformed about breast cancer, the mother of two children, 10 and 14 years old, says that after doing some tests, it turned out that she had malignant breast cancer in April 2018. Between the fear of life, and the fear of how the family, the relatives, would cope with the news, she decided to perform every preliminary analysis to understand to what stage this disease was. But the disease progressed, even though she followed every doctor's recommendation. In May of last year, the doctor recommended a PET-CT to understand the degree of spread of the tumor in her body. Also, through this scan, the location of the tumor cells could be determined with a very high precision. With the recommendation issued by the doctor, Mirela went to the Oncology Service to perform the analysis. But its realization would not be as simple as he thought. With a trembling voice and tears in her eyes, Mirela says that this analysis was not carried out for months.
I took the letter issued by the doctor's recommendation and set out to do it. But at the reception they told me that this type of analysis was not done in the state. The only hospital that did it was the "Hygea" hospital, but at a high price for my standard of living"- Mirela says about "Signalizo".
After being informed that this analysis was not done in the state, she decided to inquire at the "Hygea" hospital about the amount.
"1 thousand and 100 euros, a figure that even when I mention it I shudder. Not to mention that I had to stay away from children and pregnant women. This made my situation even more difficult, as I live in a rented house and had nowhere to stay. Under these conditions, I was interested in how much a stay in the hospital costs, and they told me 20-25 thousand ALL for one night. "- ends, showing Mirela trying to defeat cancer for the second time.
He explains the collection of the amount as one of the most difficult things he encountered during this illness.
"I asked you all for help, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces. They were and are my biggest support that I have. Thanks to them, I was able to do the analysis"- she adds.
The problem, according to the 40-year-old, is that this amount is unaffordable for this category of patients, who spend millions of money to have the chance to live once again.
Through an official request for information sent on December 27 of last year, to institutions such as the Ministry of Health, the "Mother Teresa" University Hospital Center, "Sinjalizo" asked for information on whether PET-CT analysis has ever been performed in state hospitals, from how long it is absent, what are the reasons for the absence, what happens to patients who need to undergo PET-CT.
According to the answer returned on January 12 of the Ministry of Health, it is confirmed that the PET-CT examination is not available in public structures:
"In response to your request for electronically submitted information, we inform you that the PET-CT examination is not available in public facilities"
In another response from the Ministry of Health sent on January 19, it is stated what examinations are performed in public structures, where PET-CT is not included among them.
"Regarding in-depth examinations, our public structures complete examinations with imaging such as resonance SPEC-CT, CT-SCAN, MRI as well as 3T MRI or other biomedical devices that evaluate these nosologies according to the medical protocols followed by every public hospital.
But what is a PET/CT scan and what is it for?
PET / CT is one of the most effective imaging techniques in the detection of tumor cells which combines two functions in a single device; PET (Positron Emission Tomography) provides information on the metabolic function of organs and tissues in the body as well as CT (Computed Tomography) which provides detailed information down to the cellular level. This device is the only one, which not only manages to detect tumor diseases in the early stages, but through it the degree of spread of the tumor in the body can be determined with maximum precision.
According to the white shirts who practice their profession inside the "Hygea" hospital, they show that the demand for this type of examination is quite high.
"To date, the only hospital in Albania that performs this procedure is the "Hygea" hospital with a cost of 1 thousand and 100 euros and it is performed once a week, for example every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday at 15:00. The day is determined by the radiologist. While the material is ordered from Turkey, when the number is reached. In the "Hygea" hospital, the average number of patients per month is 40, but it can go even more, depending on the requirements. "- says for 'Sinjalizo', the imaging coordinator at the "Hygea" hospital.
The Center for Quality Journalism was able to secure footage of the device that performed this particular test. According to sources within the "Hygea" hospital, the device has been in operation for over 3 years for this category of patients who carry cancer, tumors from the most diverse in their body. From the various communications with the white shirts, they express concern that these types of diseases are spreading widely in our population.
"We have an increase of 20-25% compared to the year 2021. This is due to many reasons such as: stress, malnutrition, lifestyle and not checking at the right time"- says an oncologist.
This statement is confirmed by another document of the Institute of Public Health where the age-standardized incidence of breast cancer in Albania is higher than the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and lower than in the countries of the European Union.
Currently, breast cancer is the most frequent cancer in the female population and the second most common cancer in the entire population in Albania, where according to the Institute of Public Health, for the year 2020, 4442 cases of malignant tumors were diagnosed and for the year 2021, 6036 cases with malignant tumors. This type of disease is more common in women and where the most cases are observed in women over 50 years old. In addition to women, breast cancer is also found in men, but the risk in men compared to women is about 100 times lower (usually for 100 cases of breast cancer in women, 1 such case is found in men).
