The government should at least allocate P7 billion to fund the programs for prevention and treatment of cancer, the head of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Cancer Institute said. For this year, the government has allocated P1.06 billion for the National Integrated Cancer Control Program “to provide funding and support for cancer control activities.” Meanwhile, P500 million was earmarked for the Cancer Assistance Fund, the Department of Budget and Management said. However, the over P1 billion fund for the cancer program is not enough, said  PGH Cancer Institute Chairman Dr. Jorge Ignacio during a forum on Thursday, March 23. Ignacio noted that at PGH alone, they “spend around 600 million on cancer medicines.” The PGH is also serving around 60,000 to 70,000 outpatients annually and an average of 500 patients per day. “Of course PGH is a national referral center, trickle it down to the rest of the country, kung kailangan namin ng P1 billion, kung isasama ko yung prevention, we need around P2 billion para pati yung preventive maabot namin. So siguro  (if we need P1 billion, and if I’m going to include the prevention measures, we need around P2 billion. And also) that would mean around P5 billion para sa (for) the rest of the country,” said Ignacio. It is best for concerned government officials to conduct a thorough feasibility study regarding the funding for the cancer program, the PGH official said “Kailangan may economic expert who would look at it para makita kung gaano kalaki ang kailangan natin (There needs to be an economic expert who would look at it to see how much we really need) where we really be able to afford coming from prevention to the determinant of treatment kasi lahat iyan humihingi ng pondo doon sa cancer funds (because all of that is in need of funding from the cancer funds),” said Ignacio. Allocating additional budget to the program will also mean that the government can procure new medicines for cancer like targeted therapy and immunotherapy drugs, said Ignacio. He also noted that one cycle of chemotherapy costs around P5,000, while the targeted therapy costs around P30,000 ”every three weeks for one year.” The cost of cancer treatment is “debilitating” for some families, especially for the low-income households, said Ignacio. “You can imagine how difficult that would be for an ordinary Filipino family to tackle,” he said. “So the gap widens between the rich and the poor. That is what we are trying to lessen. We really need to bridge that, yun ang ating (that is our) task,” he added.