Fassan (UniPd): "Lea reimbursements for immunohistochemistry not adequate"

Access to next-generation drugs at risk

"There is a discrepancy between the costs incurred by laboratories to perform and evaluate immunohistochemical analyses and the reimbursements from the Essential Levels of Care (LEA), or National Health Service (NHS)." This gap grows "as the number of biomarkers to be analyzed increases and can be detrimental," therefore harmful, "for the molecular characterization of tumors and limit access to next-generation drugs for these patients." These are the words of Matteo Fassan, full professor of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Padua and director of the Pathological Anatomy Unit at the ULSS2 Marca Trevigiana, speaking today at the press conference organized at the Chamber of Deputies, during which the document "Diagnosing to Treat in Oncology. The Value of Diagnostic Tests in Gastric Cancer," produced by The European House-Ambrosetti, was presented.

"Immunohistochemistry," the expert emphasizes, "is a first-line laboratory diagnostic technique" in precision oncology and is "much less complex than the molecular characterizations we typically use in oncology, which is available to all our regional pathological anatomy departments."