Cancer is a real health problem in populations in many countries. How widespread is the problem in Italy? If we consider our country, the data speak of about 3 million cancer patients, 5% of the entire population. 369 thousand are the new cases of cancer estimated in 2017 (192 thousand among males, 177 thousand among females), but fortunately, every year the 5-year survival increases and this concerns 60% of patients.
There are significant differences in treatment due to the different managements within the individual regions. Times and quality of services are profoundly different, penalizing almost a million citizens.
To outline and optimize the taking charge of ensuring, therefore, the maximum effectiveness of personal care, a real political program has been developed, divided into 15 points called "Health: an asset to defend, a right to promote", da Salute Donna Onlus and 17 other associations of oncology and onco-hematology patients.
The program in question, which has become a reference point at a political-institutional level, thanks to the launch of a 2018-2023 legislative agreement, was relaunched today in Rome during a meeting organized by the associations at the National Academy of San Luca.
The associations have reported that:
- "The marked differentiation in the quality of health care between the Regions concerns both high activity areas, where unnecessary treatments are activated, and low activity ones, with Lazio, Campania and Calabria in the first places, from where sick people ( and often also their families) are forced to move to receive adequate care ”.;
- access to treatment is delayed by bureaucratic delays: after approval by the European Medicines Agency, at least one year passes for national recognition and a further time, different from Region to Region, to make innovative therapies available to patients " .
For the attention of the politicians who took part in the discussion, in particular, four interconnected issues were submitted, which ideally encompass all the points of the agreement.
“The reason for existence of our associations and the objective of our initiative is that of improve the lives of millions of people fighting cancer "- underlined Annamaria Mancuso, president of Salute Donna Onlus.
The President urged the politicians who will give life to the next legislature to commit themselves to bringing the unmet needs of cancer patients and their families back to the center of health policies and institutional programming.
Adele Leone, president Acto Bari (Alliance Against Ovarian Cancer) stressed that "On issues of fundamental importance, such as those concerning the treatment of cancer patients, there must not be such striking regional divergences as unfortunately there are today: the first, fundamental step to leveling inequalities and limiting passive mobility is the application of Pdta ( Diagnostic-therapeutic assistance paths) in a homogeneous way throughout the national territory, as desired by the agreement ".
Felice Bombaci, head of Gaplmc (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patient Group) - noted that there are management anomalies that must be corrected. If the Fund falls below the warning level of 6,5% of GDP set by the WHO (as expected in the next three years), the regular provision of essential levels of assistance, together with the availability of innovative, high-cost therapies, risk to be at risk. "The innovative therapies, if on the one hand they involve a high cost, on the other hand they allow more and more people to return to productive life and therefore to generate GDP ".
Another problem that causes concern among the associations of cancer patients and onco-hematological patients is the lack of human resources. Isabella Francisetti, president Amoc onlus (Association of Oncological Illnesses Colon-Retto) - claims that "the lack of human resources also plays a decisive role in the management of screening, such as for colorectal cancer and, in cascade, on the lives of patients: the limited number of gastroenterology clinics that perform colonoscopies, a necessary examination to diagnose the presence of possible neoplasia, involves an expansion of the waiting list times and therefore a negative fallout on the prognosis of the pathology ". This lack of human resources thus translates into exasperated workloads for healthcare professionals and less attention in interacting with the patient
According to Ipasvi data, about 47 thousand professionals in the nursing sector are missing and demographic studies indicate that in a few years, large sections of the population may lack a family doctor.
Patrizia Burdi, president of Aiscup (Italian Association for the Study and Care of the Oncological Patient) - said that "the willingness to listen and to give feedback between doctor and patient has a significant positive impact on the quality of life of both, as confirmed by numerous studies. An empathic communication is not a gift from a few but a skill that everyone can learn and that can contribute to reducing the costs of medical assistance: it is time for it to become a specific teaching in medical schools in Italy too ".
An Italian research, in this regard, has highlighted that spending more time listening to patients can increase the effectiveness of a treatment by 30%.
How to intervene to climb the slope of the financial imbalance, made steeper both due to the increase in both the incidence of oncological disease (about 10% more new cases compared to 2010) and the number of survivors (increased by 25% in the last 8 years)?
The answer, fully shared by all the associations and specialists, we find in the enhancement of primary prevention namely:
- dissemination of a cultural attitude based on a healthy lifestyle;
- calibrated feed;
- moderate but constant physical activity;
- avoid well-established but potentially dangerous habits such as alcohol and cigarette consumption and habits and excessive exposure to the sun.