Dec 17, 2020
Paco Roca illustrates ?? The story of Cristina ??, a comic about a patient with HER2 positive breast cancer
The cartoonist, who has received the Eisner award in 2020, known as the Oscar for comics, has joined forces with Roche to relate the experience of a woman facing a neoadjuvant treatment.
The Valencian cartoonist Paco Roca has been commissioned to illustrate La Historia de Cristina, a comic that recounts the life of a patient who, after being diagnosed with HER2 positive breast cancer, receives treatment using a technique she had never heard of : neoadjuvancy. The recent winner of the Eisner award has thus joined forces with Roche Spain to explain, in a simple way, the experience of all those women who, after a complicated diagnosis, face an innovative treatment.
“Without a doubt, the comic has great didactic power, using it to explain or reflect on topics that I find interesting always motivates me. This has been the case of La Historia de Cristina, which tells how the patient copes with cancer and how, thanks to the care of professionals, she overcomes it”, Says Roca. The main reference of Spanish comics is about the story of a disease, as it did with Wrinkles, a story that jumped to the big screen in short film format and that got to receive the Goya award for best adapted screenplay in 2011.
Through Cristina’s testimony, Roche intends to give visibility to all women who suffer from breast cancer – in Spain alone, about 33,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Within breast cancer there are different subtypes, of which approximately 20% are HER2 positive breast cancer, such as the one suffered by the protagonist of the comic.
Until a few years ago, breast cancer was treated as a single disease, but medical research has made it possible to discover and learn that there are many subtypes and that each of them can be treated in a specific way.
In the case illustrated by Paco Roca in La Historia de Cristina, the patient faces a treatment that surprises her with its strange name, neoadjuvant therapy, which involves administering one or more drugs before undergoing surgery. It is this phase prior to entering the operating room that helps, among other things, to reduce the size of the tumor, facilitating its subsequent removal.
According to Beatriz Lozano, Director of Communication, Patients and CSR at Roche Farma Spain, “access to information and knowledge by patients of issues related to their health is a priority for us”. Therefore, he continues, “It is essential to innovate in informative formats together with artists of the stature of Paco Roca, who know how to bring scientific and health content to society, in a clear and entertaining way“.
To enjoy La Historia de Cristina, you don’t have to go to bookstores. In this case, Roca’s comic is available on the Roche Patients website for download. through this link.
This year, the Valencian cartoonist has seen his works turn into a moving image. Director Alejandro Amenábar will direct the film adaptation of another of The Black Swan Treasure, while Daniel Monzón will turn Los surcos del azar into a series.
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Cancer
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