Over a thousand fewer victims: mortality from stomach cancer has dropped from 2015 to today. For the first time this tumor, which affects 14 thousand Italians every year, kills less: according to the data reported during the last Seminar on Nutrition in Gastroresecates “organized byAssociation “Living without a stomach, you can” Onlus, since 2015, mortality has decreased by 20 per cent in women and 11 per cent in men.
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Chance of healing
The reasons for this considerable improvement in life expectancy, as explained by Stefano Cascinu, director of the Department of Oncology at the San Raffaele University of Life and Health in Milan, are above all the innovations in surgical and pharmacological therapy, such as new treatments with immunotherapy and also preoperative chemotherapy, which increased the chance of recovery from advanced disease by 20 percent. For stomach cancer, screening programs are unthinkable, because there are not many patients affected who develop breast or colorectal cancer; however, it is possible to improve survival, for example by not neglecting even the mildest symptoms: gastroscopy is often performed after months of treatment with antacid drugs against reflux, among the most consumed by Italians, which make the mucous membrane softer and ‘water down’ the premonitory disturbances of the neoplasm risking to hide small tumor forms, Cascinu observes. This delays the diagnosis, increasing the risk of mortality: the opposite would have to happen, that is to perform gastroscopy first and then move on to treatment with antacids.
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Nutrition problems
Unfortunately there is another side of the coin: still today one in three patients dies five years after diagnosis and often the fault of underestimated and unmet nutritional needs, as observed by Maurizio Muscaritoli, president of the Italian Society of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (SINUC ): Nutrition is a life-saving therapy even more necessary in those who undergo gastrectomy due to stomach cancer, because the malnutrition common to all cancer patients is compounded by the alterations of the digestive processes. 40 percent stop chemotherapy because they are too weak, 20 percent do not get over the disease due to the consequences of malnutrition. A specialist evaluation by a clinical nutritionist is needed right from the first oncological visit, then a global care of the patient that includes adequate clinical nutrition interventions.
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The call for help
Patients without stomach due to a tumor, about 80 thousand in Italy, can in fact undergo malnutrition that literally kills, as underlined by Claudia Santangelo, president of the Association “Vivere senza Stomaco, si pu” Onlus: We have deficiencies of vitamin B12, iron , vitamin D and important glycemic changes. Unfortunately, after surgery the patients are left to themselves and, despite agreements between the State and the Regions that provide for the presence of nutritionists in cancer centers, almost never is the management of nutrition all on the shoulders of the patients with a considerable expense that does not everyone can afford, risking starvation. And access to sensors for monitoring blood glucose is no better, essential for the real risk of coma and hospitalization, provided free of charge only in Emilia-Romagna. For this reason, we ask for the presence of the clinical nutritionist in the hospital and on the territory right from the diagnosis and the free of charge oral nutritional supplements and glycemic sensors in all Regions. The goal is to guarantee homogeneity and equality of access to care for all patients everywhere.
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November 23, 2020 (change November 23, 2020 | 18:38)
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