Cancer diagnoses are increasing in Italy compared to 2020 and it is not only the weight of the pandemic that is being felt: the boom in cases is in fact also due to inappropriate lifestyles. In fact, in 2022 almost 400 thousand new cases are estimated, 390,700 to be exact: 14,100 more in 2 years.
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OVERWEIGHT And if prevention screenings have resumed in the post-pandemic phase, the concerns are overweight, which affects 33% of adults, obesity which affects 10%, but also sedentary lifestyle, which reaches a peak of 31%. %, and smoking, a habit for 24%. The study is contained in the volume The numbers of cancer in Italy 2022.
BREAST CANCER The most frequently diagnosed cancer in 2022 was breast cancer (55,700 cases, +0.5% compared to 2020), followed by colorectal cancer (48,100, +1.5% in men and +1.6% in women). women), lungs (43,900, +1.6% in men and +3.6% in women), prostate (40,500, +1.5%).
THE PANDEMIC Covid, the experts note, led to a drop in new diagnoses in 2020 partly linked to the interruption of screening, but today we are witnessing a recovery in cancer cases as in other European countries. However, the trend runs the risk of worsening if a barrier to incorrect lifestyles is not put in place. The 2020-2021 data “mark a moment of acceleration mostly in a pejorative sense as regards behavioral risk factors – underlines the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci – it is a figure that cannot fail to arouse concern if we consider that 40% of cases and 50% of cancer deaths can be avoided by intervening on preventable risk factors, especially on lifestyles”.
THE SCREENINGS The delays in assistance accumulated during the pandemic also weigh, but there is a resumption of secondary prevention programs and early stage surgery. In particular, in 2021 screening programs returned to pre-pandemic levels, for mammography exams, for colorectal cancer and for cervical cancer. The data “call more and more to strengthen the actions to counter the diagnostic delay and to promote secondary and above all primary prevention, acting on the control of risk factors starting from smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse », says Saverio Cinieri, president of Aiom, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology. A positive fact is that compared to the 2.5 million people who lived in Italy in 2006 with a previous diagnosis of cancer, this rose to around 3.6 million in 2020, 37% more than what was observed in just 10 years first.
Last Updated: Tuesday 20 December 2022, 09:24
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