The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology warns that covid behaves like a “black hole that absorbs resources”.
The Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM) estimates that last year one out of every five cases of cancer was not diagnosed in Spain due to the sanitary saturation produced by the covid. All this represents “a negative impact on survival and palliation”, in the words of the organization’s president, Álvaro Rodríguez-Lescure. On the occasion of the presentation of the report ‘Cancer figures in Spain 2021’, the president of the scientific society argued that the data of this decline are due to the months of the first wave of the coronavirus. As nothing suggests that the situation has been reversed and the health centers continue to suffer the assistance pressure of the SARS-Cov-2, Rodríguez-Lescure argued that underdiagnoses continue to occur.
For the SEOM leader, if the incidence of cancer in Spain rises to 276,000 new cases a year, and the trend in the decline in diagnosis is estimated at 21%, it can be said that the number of people who have not been diagnosed oscillates around 60,000 people. Rodríguez-Lescure is concerned that with the delays that are being suffered there is an increase in cases of cancer in advanced stages. “Covid behaves like a black hole that absorbs human, therapeutic, diagnostic and technical resources; for all these reasons, the diagnostic activity of cancer, in terms of biopsies, radiologies, colonoscopies and cytologies, among others, has been diminished” he claimed.
Oncologists are convinced that the stress of the system, especially in primary care, creates a wall between patients and healthcare. Despite the difficulties in getting an appointment, the SEOM says you should not give up and demand the care you are entitled to. “That is not fear, at least, what paralyzes you, since circuits have been established in all areas. You have to be patient and insistent, we can’t say anything else,” stressed the president of the SEOM.
In 2021 there will be 276,239 new cases (158,867 new in men and 117,372 in women). One of the main reasons for this continued increase in the incidence in women, as was already reflected in the 2019 report, is the rise in the number of lung cancer cases, motivated by the spread of smoking. It is not by chance that lung cancer is the third most affected tumor in women, after breast and colorectal cancer.
In view of this situation, it is foreseeable that other cancers related to tobacco consumption, such as urinary bladder and oral cavity and pharynx, will experience a rise. These data do not differ from those recorded in neighboring countries, although estimates in Europe indicate that female mortality from lung cancer in women has been higher than from breast cancer since 2016. That is why the EU is considering a strategic plan that in 20 years there will be a Europe without tobacco.
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