The 2030 is the dead line in Italy: one in two patients will be over 65. Not surprising numbers if one thinks that one in three people among those affected by this cancer has already passed the 65 years. A trend that mixes with the aging of the Italian population, which already counts on 60 millions of people, counts 10 millions of seniors. It will be discussed next Tuesday in Milan, at the IRCCS Foundation - National Cancer Institute on the occasion of the seminar "The elderly patient: the challenges of a multidisciplinary approach and head-neck cancer", organized by the IRCCS National Cancer Institute, in collaboration with the Don Gnocchi Foundation of Milan and the Spedali Civili of Brescia, with the scientific supervision of Lisa Licitra and Paolo Bossi and the patronage of several Italian scientific societies. Head-neck tumors refer to the set of neoplasms that originate in the nasal cavities and in the paranasal sinuses, in the pharynx, in the oral cavity, in the larynx and in the salivary glands. The most common, about one in two cases, concerns the larynx, followed by that of the oral cavity and pharynx. The 90 percent of these tumors are spinocellular carcinomas; the remaining part, however, concerns melanomas, sarcomas, lymphomas and other types of cancer. These diseases - explained Paolo Bossi SC Medical Oncology 3 Tumor Head-Neck and IRCCS National Cancer Institute Foundation - mainly affect the oral cavity, pharynx or pharynx / larynx, and concern an increasingly adult population, above the 65 years. The population most at risk is the one that drinks alcohol and smokes, but lately there has also been an epidemic linked to the papilloma virus ". In Italy, these tumors represent about 5 percent of all malignant tumors, fifth among the most frequent. There are about 12 thousand cases that are diagnosed each year, with an incidence rate of 17 new cases for 100 thousand inhabitants per year. Only one patient out of two, at 5 years from the diagnosis, manages to survive, obviously depending on the stage of recognized disease and the lateness of the diagnosis itself. The region most affected is Veneto: about 50 cases for 100 thousand among men and 8 for 100 thousand among women. At the national level, men are more at risk, they get 7 more often than women. The most affected age group is that between 50 and 70 years, but salivary gland tumors and sarcomas strike at an earlier age. "The approach to the diagnosis and treatment of this disease - Bossi said - in the coming years will require more and more a multidisciplinary medical evaluation, with a close collaboration between oncologists, radiotherapists and surgeons, in order to decide treatment based on treatments available at the stage of disease to the clinical condition of the individual patient. The key presence of the geriatrician figure, in support, will allow to design and customize therapies for elderly patients, to better manage recovery after treatment.
