Santa Cruz de Tenerife 28 Feb. (Europa Press) –
The Ministry of Health of the Canary Islands Government has revealed this Friday the plan for administering antineoplastic chemotherapeutics at home, which commenced trials in 2018 and aims for its expansion by 2025 to all hospitals across the Canary Islands, enhancing the comfort and safety of cancer patients.
This initiative began as a pilot project in 2018. Subsequently, in 2021, a protocol was established with the Hematology Service of Doctor Negrín Hospital specifically for onco-hematological patients. As of December 2024, the University Hospital of the Canary Islands has also joined the initiative, as detailed during the presentation.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Health is currently working to unify all pilot projects to ensure their application across all hospital centres in the Canary Islands.
“This is feasible thanks to the advancements in therapeutic innovation we possess. Increasingly, medications are safer and easier to use. Chemotherapeutics can now be administered not just intravenously, but also subcutaneously,” explained Miguel Ángel Ponce, the director of Doctor Negrín Hospital in Gran Canaria.
Ponce further clarified that this service is backed by a protocol, ensuring that hospital staff “are prepared” to handle any adverse reactions, with patient monitoring conducted even through “telemedicine”, which enables oversight from home to address “any unforeseen circumstances.”
Thus, the current objective is to increase the number of patients accessing this service, particularly in the major hospitals of the Canary Islands, where there is “a higher prevalence of cancer patients,” supported by the relocation of oncology services or through home hospitalisation units.
The service is presently available in the capital islands, but they have indicated that there is already home hospitalisation in Lanzarote and La Palma, with plans to establish one in Fuerteventura: “The aim is to ensure that this service reaches all residents of the Canary Islands,” emphasised Ponce.
Regarding the patient demographic, it has so far been employed for individuals with myelodysplastic syndromes, which are similar to leukaemia, and it has now expanded to cancer patients who receive subcutaneous chemotherapeutics used for lung and bladder cancers.
Since 2018, the Doctor Negrín Hospital in Gran Canaria has administered chemotherapy to around 300 patients at home, and since 2021, they have also provided concurrent transfusions of blood products in these settings.
“It is well known that these patients often suffer from anaemia and typically experience hematological issues resulting from chemotherapy or as a consequence of their own illness,” stated Ponce, who also noted that in addition to chemotherapeutic treatment, blood transfusions have been conducted at home.
Implementation and Predictions
In a statement to the press, the scientific director of the Canary Islands Institute of Health Research, Fernando Gutiérrez, highlighted that this healthcare project is in the initial stages of establishment, with the goal of implementing it across all hospitals in the Canary Islands by the end of 2025.
The initiative will unfold in two phases; the first phase is expected to conclude in March, involving the launch of this service in the four main hospitals on the islands, followed by an extension to the non-capital islands.
As for the service, it is the oncologist of each patient who determines which individuals will utilise the service. He explained that the initial and secondary cycles of treatment would take place in day hospitals and, thereafter, the suitability of patients for home service would be assessed.
Currently, the treatments utilised are “those associated with the least reactions,” to facilitate the transition to a home care environment, and likely within two to three years, intravenous chemotherapy will also be administered in addition to non-antineoplastic treatments.
Project coordinators anticipate that between 10 and 15% of cancer patients could potentially benefit from this home service. “Each major hospital treats approximately 3,000-3,500 patients annually,” Gutiérrez revealed.
Minimising Travel and Enhancing Comfort for Users
At a press conference, the President of the Canary Islands Government, Fernando Clavijo, remarked how this initiative “validates the efforts of the department,” as well as the “numerous workers of the Canarian health system,” given the “many milestones” achieved in the past 19 months, including this home-care project which, he asserted, will lessen travel requirements and improve patient comfort.
Furthermore, the Health Minister, Esther Monzón, has celebrated this announcement as indicative of the “resumed path” in the current legislature, focused on the goal of “bringing public health closer to the patient.”
“This represents a horizon of hope for many cancer patients, humanising treatment in a safer and more welcoming environment,” added the head of the Health Department.
He emphasised that the Canary Islands now becomes the first Spanish region to adopt a “uniform and centralised cancer treatment strategy.”
Fernando Gutiérrez, scientific director of the Canary Islands Institute of Health Research, indicated that administering these drugs at home “will revolutionise the approach of Canary Islands healthcare to cancer patients,” operating with greater efficiency.
In this manner, he elaborated on the complications that arise from any cancer diagnosis, which can lead to an “impact” both physically and emotionally. In this regard, he explained that the home initiative could alleviate the feeling of “prolonged illness” that cancer patients often experience when visiting a hospital.
