A São Paulo appeals court has upheld a ruling that the state must pay R$50,000 in damages to the heirs of an 87-year-old man who was wrongly diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and spent nine months believing he was dying. The 11th Public Law Chamber of the São Paulo Court of Justice found that the diagnosis was made “without exhausting the available and necessary investigative means,” according to the ruling’s rapporteur, Judge Fernão Borba Franco. The patient, who presented with jaundice, dark urine and weight loss, was placed on palliative care before a home visit by a palliative team revealed that imaging exams did not clearly describe a tumour and his clinical condition remained stable. A subsequent CT scan ruled out cancer entirely. The court noted that the error caused severe anxiety, fear of death, psychiatric medication use, and physical decline that left the man dependent on a walker and wheelchair—conditions absent before the misdiagnosis. The initial compensation of R$10,000 was deemed insufficient given the gravity of the suffering imposed.

Viewed from Brasília, the case underscores a broader diagnostic challenge. A survey by the A.C.Camargo Cancer Center and Nexus, released in parallel, found that while 80% of Brazilians consider blood in the stool a serious sign of colorectal cancer, nearly half of those who experienced it did not seek medical attention. Two-thirds of respondents were unaware of the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), a screening tool with over 95% sensitivity that can detect the disease before symptoms appear. The Brazilian health ministry is preparing a national screening protocol to offer FIT through the public health system to people aged 50 to 75, aiming to replicate the over 90% cure rates achieved when colorectal cancer is caught early. Specialists attribute rising cases among adults under 50 to modern dietary and lifestyle factors, though no definitive explanation has been established.

In Italy, a position paper presented in the Senate identified similar obstacles in the management of neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), rare malignancies representing less than 0.5% of cancers but requiring long-term specialist monitoring. The document, drafted with non-conditioning support from Ipsen, outlines five operational priorities for the National Health Service: reducing diagnostic delays, avoiding fragmented and unnecessary repeat tests, strengthening multidisciplinary care pathways, ensuring territorial homogeneity, and preparing for therapeutic innovation. Health Minister Orazio Schillaci, in a message to the event, stated that the health system must “continue to invest in this direction to ensure increasingly appropriate responses close to patients’ needs.” Senator Guido Quintino Liris, who promoted the initiative, argued that the full potential of new therapies can only be realised within structured diagnostic-therapeutic pathways and multidisciplinary networks.

From Kuala Lumpur, the financial burden of accessing advanced treatment is illustrated by the case of Brema, a 54-year-old Malaysian man diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer that has spread to his lungs and lymph nodes. Given six months to live three years ago, he has survived through treatment at St Stanford Modern Cancer Hospital in Guangzhou, China. The first phase, costing RM51,000, was covered by donations managed by a friend. A second phase, scheduled for late July and expected to cost RM70,000, involves cryoablation procedures. Brema, who relies on a Socso invalidity pension and public cash aid, has appealed for public donations to continue treatment he describes as his “best chance of survival.” The fundraising effort, verified by his authorised representative, is ongoing with a target to cover the full amount before the procedure date.