In Puglia, the reduction in breast cancer screening was higher than the Italian average. In the first year and a half of the pandemic, the “missed” exams, compared to the pre-Covid period, were 44,380. This is 34% less, while the national average stands at -28%. More generally, throughout the Peninsula, there are more than 816 thousand mammography screenings skipped due to the Coronavirus. And more than 1 million and 93 thousand women have not been invited to participate in these life-saving exams. In total, there are over 4 million fewer invitations to participate in screening throughout Italy. From January 2020 to May 2021 the following were carried out: -35% of tests to identify cervical cancer and -34% of tests not performed for colorectal cancer.
These are some of the data that emerged during the conference “Prevention and Screening at the time of Covid”. The event takes place today at the Polyfunctional Student Center of the University of Bari and is promoted by the University of Bari Aldo Moro, IncontraDonna and by the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM). “The pandemic has worsened an already difficult situation – he underlines Adriana Bonifacino, President of IncontraDonna Onlus. Before 2020, the number of women who regularly underwent a free mammogram was too low. The same goes for the HPV Test and the search for occult blood in the faeces which are used to detect cancer of the uterine cervix and colorectal cancer early. This has happened above all in some Regions which have presented not encouraging data for many years. The arrival of Covid has diverted not only resources, but also the attention of citizens from cancer “.
“The pandemic has taught us that some systems work and others don’t – he continues Saverio Cinieri, National President of AIOM and director of the Medical Oncology and Breast Unit of the ASL of Brindisi. We obtained the results of the swabs or booked a vaccination with a simple smartphone and we received emails or SMS from the institutions. But citizens are still being invited for screening exams through traditional postal letters. It is an outdated system. Citizens do not join screening programs not only because they underestimate a possible health problem. Often the letters do not reach their destination. We can and must use more innovative systems, also to encourage greater adherence to tests. Territorial differences do not exist only between one Region and another, but often also between individual ASLs. In the same province, we sometimes find very different membership rates. It is a further demonstration that even the bureaucratic-administrative organization plays a fundamental role “.
With fewer early diagnoses, we recorded more serious diagnoses in 2021, with more voluminous tumors, more extensive metastases, diseases at a more advanced stage. All this means longer, more expensive, more invasive treatments, with less certain and statistically positive outcomes ”- comments the lawyer. Alessandro Delle Donne – Director General IRCCS “Giovanni Paolo II” Cancer Institute Bari – “How to intervene? A functional reorganization of the Institute – more human resources, more instrumental resources, new and strategic collaborations – and, above all, a reorganization of the territorial network. It is the CHORUS, designed to optimize the path of the cancer patient, involving the whole network, which part of the general practitioners and arrives at our Institute. “. “The micro and macro environment have great importance in oncological diseases” – he continues Antonio Moschetta, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Bari Aldo Moro – “The aggressiveness of a tumor derives both from the intrinsic characteristics of the cancer and from the characteristics of the organism that hosts it”. “Our priority, for the next few months, is to encourage primary and secondary cancer prevention as much as possible and at 360 degrees – concludes Prof. Bonifacino -. In particular, women must begin to carry out regular mammography, the search for faecal occult blood and the HPV Test. They are three absolutely safe, minimally invasive tests and which, above all, have been shown to reduce mortality from three particularly widespread neoplasms ” .