The rights and needs of breast cancer patients arrive in Parliament thanks to the Manifesto of Europa Donna Parliament which sees the adhesion of 18 parliamentarians from different political groups and which aims to defend, also at the legislative level, the over 834 thousand women in Italy who have or have had this neoplasm. The initiative was presented today in a press conference at the Chamber of Deputies in the presence of the Undersecretary for Health, Pierpaolo Sileri.
The objectives of the Manifesto
Enhance the quality of breast cancer care and improve the functioning of Breast Units, overcoming strong regional divisions. Promote both primary and secondary prevention campaigns. Improve the management of patients with the most difficult to treat cancers: those at high risk and metastatic cases. These are the three main programmatic points of the Europe Woman Parliament Manifesto, created to protect the rights of women with breast cancer, reduce its incidence and improve diagnosis and treatment. The initiative is promoted by Europa Donna Italia, the movement that protects women’s rights to prevent and treat breast cancer. “We are working with the parliamentarians to identify together the most effective ways to expand and make more accessible the offer of services and services for the benefit of women – she says Rosanna D’Antona, president of Europa Donna Italia.
Regional disparities
Of particular concern are the strong differences between North and South in terms of health. “This is a longstanding problem that Covid-19 has made even more evident,” continues D’Antona. “The northern regions continue to offer better services and infrastructures than those in the south. We are instead in favor of equal rights for women and we would like patients throughout Italy to be treated in the same way when they face cancer. The pandemic and the Recovery Fund are pushing us towards a major change in infrastructure, digital transformation, education, the environment and even health. We therefore thank all the parliamentarians who have decided to join the alliance which is already registering new important members ”.
More homogeneity for Breast Unit and screening
Breast cancer affects over 834 thousand women in our country and the number is constantly growing because every year over 54 thousand women get sick. There are many points of intervention on which we intend to work together with the parliamentarians. “The most important – he argues Corrado Tinterri, coordinator of the Scientific Technical Committee of Europa Donna Italia – are the quality of diagnosis, care and assistance in the Breast Units that is still uneven – and sometimes lacking – on the national territory and the quality of the screening programs that still do not have the delays accumulated in the months of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic have fully recovered ”. But we will also work on the dissemination of free surveillance and treatment paths dedicated to women at high risk for genetic predisposition to cancer and their families and on the implementation of paths dedicated to patients with metastatic breast cancer. “It is therefore necessary, also at the legislative level, to have the sensitivity of female parliamentarians, whom we thank, to deliberate adequate and timely measures to protect female citizens”, concludes Tinterri.
“Because of Covid-19 – he declares Francesco Cognetti, president of Together Against Cancer and Foce, ConFederation of Oncologists, Cardiologists and Hematologists – hundreds of women have not been able to screen for breast and ovarian cancer and many adolescents have not received the HPV vaccine. These are all delays that we will inevitably pay in the coming years, but unfortunately there is still no perception of how big the problem is and how mortality will increase in the coming years ”.
“One of the battles we are waging together with Europa Donna is that for the reimbursement of genomic tests. It is estimated that around 22 patients receive unnecessary chemotherapy every day. Personally, in daily clinical practice, I find it difficult to tell a sick woman that due to a bureaucratic problem she has to pay for the test. It is a situation that is no longer tolerable and that must change as soon as possible throughout the Peninsula. Parliament and the Government have already done their part last year by setting up a special national fund of 20 million euros, but unfortunately, after 7 months, women continue to pay for the test themselves and if they cannot do it they undergo chemotherapy. . We need the implementing decree “.
The first ‘conquests’
Europa Donna Parliament is already operational. In fact, it met in June and launched some initiatives in recent weeks including the AC 3132 amendment to the Sostegni bis Decree for the establishment at the Ministry of Health, of the control room on Breast and Oncofertility promoted by the Honorable Beatrice Lorenzin. On 15 June, the Honorable Maria Soave Alemanno presented a question with a written answer on the timing of the adoption of the implementing decree of the Fund of 20 million euros established by the 2020 Budget Law for the reimbursement of expenses for the purchase by genomic testing hospitals for hormone-responsive early-stage breast cancer). And again the Honorable Simona Baldassarre and 10 other MEPs presented a written question to the European Commission on breast cancer (investments to increase the number of Breast Units and draw up specific guidelines to speed up diagnostics). Senators Maria Domenica Castellone and Elisa Pirro P instead presented a question on the Next-Generation Sequencing Test Fund on June 17th. Finally, an urgent question is scheduled to find out the actual state of the implementation of the Breast Units on the national territory and the state of the art of the coordination table envisaged in the 2014 Guidelines signed by Sen. Maria Rizzotti ” .
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