The volume on the numbers of cancer in Italy «represents a tool for monitoring the oncological disease, for evaluating its impact and the strategies for the prevention of tumors and national diagnostic-therapeutic systems. I have dedicated many years of my activity to the study of tumors and as Minister of Health today I consider the aspect of oncology and prevention a priority for our nation’s health policies, especially at this moment”. This was stated by the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, speaking at the presentation of “The numbers of cancer in Italy in 2022”.
We are finally overcoming the emergency phase of Covid-19 and we can draw an overall balance of the situation and the important side effects of the pandemic. Among these, certainly one of the most harmful was the sharp slowdown, and in some cases the suspension, of cancer screenings, especially in the most difficult moments of the emergency, especially the first wave. These interruptions have led to missed diagnoses, an increase in the incidence and severity of oncological diseases that I believe we will pay for in the years to come”.
According to the report in 2022 in Italy there were 390,700 new cancer diagnoses compared to 2020, there is an increase of 14,100 diagnoses. A sign that we must quickly make up for diagnostic delays, strengthen primary and secondary prevention. As for screening levels, they returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. The increase in 2021 in surgeries for breast and colorectal cancers and in the percentage of early stage cancers confirms a resumption of cancer screening activity and probably the earlier taking charge of these neoplasms.
Work-related, insurance-related problems, in applying for mortgages and sometimes also in applying for adoptions. They are the ones that people who have had an oncological disease often experience, definable cured on the basis of the fact that there is a complete remission in the absence of treatment for a certain period of time and the achievement of the same life expectancy as a subject of the same age and sex without previous oncological pathologies. It is their right not to be discriminated against, as highlighted by the Aiom Foundation, the offshoot of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology which is committed to improving information on oncological issues and promoting prevention campaigns. “A new conceptual approach is needed – explains Giordano Beretta, president of the Aiom Foundation (in the photo above) – the patient can return to normal life but above all he must not be forced to declare that he has had an oncological disease”.
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