Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

Some cancer patients in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) need drugs costing up to $200 a day, or about $6,000 a month, the director of Hiwa Cancer Hospital in Al-Sulaymaniyah said on Tuesday, warning that rising prices and the region's financial crisis are straining treatment.

Hiwa Hospital's drug stocks are among the best in the KRI and Iraq, Dr. Yad al-Naqshbandi told Shafaq News, but "that does not mean every medicine is available for every patient."

He said the hospital and its affiliated centers achieve treatment results "above internationally accepted rates, particularly for the Middle East." Breast cancer, the focus of awareness campaigns this October, accounts for about 20% of cases, and overall rates this year are similar to last year's, he added, though cases are rising gradually worldwide due to factors such as pollution.

"It is difficult to prevent cancer completely, even in the most advanced countries in the world, but we can raise health awareness and encourage people to get regular checkups to detect the disease in its early stages," he said, calling for broader screening programs, sustainable funding for specialized centers and a higher priority for cancer care in Iraq's health policy.

Last July, Health Minister Saman Barzanji revealed that the Kurdistan Regional Government allocated about 28 billion Iraqi dinars ($21.3 million) to Hiwa Hospital in 2025, while the facility currently provides 85% of required cancer treatments and surgeries.

Barzanji previously told Shafaq News that the Kurdistan Region receives less than half of its required medical supplies from Baghdad and spends about seven billion dinars ($5.3 million) monthly on essential medicines for public hospitals, in addition to separate allocations for cancer and cardiac treatment centers.

Read more: Home or Hope? The Impossible Choice for Iraqi Cancer Patients