Spain does not now enjoy a good position in the implementation of precision medicine compared to other countries. That is the opinion of scientific societies and experts. While the SEOM (Spanish Society of Medical Oncology) claims and works to incorporate a biomarkers catalogthe Government launches a PERTE for state-of-the-art health.
PERTE and precision medicine
In the statement of PERTE, precision medicine has special relevance. But it is a mistake to believe that precision medicine it’s just the biomarkersand it is viewed with concern that concepts are mixed, as was warned at the X ECO Forum.
Although some genetic test can be a predictive biomarkerwe talk about biomarkers as if they were just genetic tests, says the Dr. Rafael Lopezpresident of the ECO Foundation.
There is €36.6 million of funding available from the Ministry of Science for the second quarter of 2022. If confusion is generated, we could move along the wrong line and not make up for the years we have been behind.
In this sense, the president of SEAP (Spanish Society of Pathological Anatomy) also explains, Dr. Jose Luis Rodriguez Peraltosince it clarifies that it is not necessary to mix the diseases that are of genetic transmissionon the one hand, and somatic alterations of cancer, which are another matter.
Paradigm shift and structure
Experts speak of a new paradigmto have pathologists, molecular biologists and bioinformaticians. Without a new work design and human teams, precision medicine will continue to be an incomplete reality subject to the ability of a center that has resources and capacity, and that will increase the inequality gap.
A photo of precision medicine
The data provided from SEOM of your survey between medical oncology services They are very illustrative. Its president, Dr. Enriqueta Felip, talks about a survey of oncologists and pathologists that indicates that only 50% of respondents have access to liquid biopsy in Spain.
On the other hand, only one 30% of hospitals respondents claim to have molecular tumor committee.
The Precision Medicine Conference organized by SEOM and SEAP shows an irregular situation in Spain. Some Autonomous Communities are organized and others are not.
Spain without implementation model
A model to follow could be the one that Catalonia is implementing with an incipient network of centers, says Dr. José Luis Rodríguez Peralto. He also assures that Madrid is beginning to talk about it.
Looking outside our borders, the german or french model they are implemented and it is necessary that, at least, they are designed and put into operation in Spain.
For this reason, it is relevant that biomarkers are in the portfolio of services and that is how the General Directorate of Common Portfolio and Pharmacy is working, confirms Dr. Felip herself. But a second step is to work with the Autonomous Communities. to implement the processes that allow access this part of precision medicine. This will imply centralizing the analysis of the appropriate biomarkers in different reference centers.