The better treatments against childhood cancers accessible to all. Every year in Italy there are 1,500 children and 900 adolescents diagnosed with cancer.
Childhood cancers: the numbers in Italy
However, there is also good news. Thanks to scientific research Recovery rates have now reached an average of 80 percent. It is therefore estimated that there are at least 50,000 people cured of pediatric cancer. The bad news is that Childhood cancers remain the leading cause of death for children. The data comes directly from the Italian Federation of pediatric oncohematology parents and recovered associations (Fiagop) on the occasion of World Pediatric Cancer Day.
What are the most common childhood cancers?
Fondazione Veronesi has financed the work of more than 200 researchers dedicated to the topic of pediatric oncology in Italian universities and institutes and the opening of treatment protocols aimed at various childhood pathologiescome:
Better treatments against childhood cancer at the center of World Pediatric Cancer Day
As was also the case for World Cancer Day, the utmost attention of experts is to ensure that all children and adolescents affected by cancer have access to the best possible care. According to the president of Fiagop, Paolo Viti, in fact, alongside centers of excellence there are many areas of our country that still do not offer ad hoc structures for the treatment of pediatric tumors.
These are often rare tumors, therefore it is difficult to find suitable hospitals for all pathologies, but it is necessary to organize the National Rare Cancer Network.
The requests of the Veronesi Foundation to allow access to the best treatments against childhood cancer
«Among the open and urgent issues to be addressed are the possibility of access for children to new medicineswhich are rarely tested and approved in forms and dosages suited to them, the lack of funding for research and targeted trials on pediatric pathologies.” Andrea Ferrari is a pediatric oncologist and member of the Scientific Committee of the Umberto Veronesi ETS Foundation.
Adolescents more disadvantaged than younger children
Teenagers have the biggest problems. «Patients over 15 years old – warns Ferrari – are less likely to recover than children. Differences in survival between age groups are due to various factors:
for many neoplasms, it is likely that adolescent cancer is more aggressive of what arises in the child, precisely because of his intrinsic biological characteristics; There are delays in diagnosis and in starting treatment; There are difficulty in accessing protocols and centers of excellence; the lack of clinical studies and specific trials».
Here because Veronesi Foundation has been working for years finance medical care and research into childhood cancersworking in synergy with the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (AIEOP) and its Foundation (Fieop).
Projects in the field to allow access to the best treatments against childhood cancer
«Our objective is to maximize the chances of recovery and improve the quality of life of children and young people who become ill with cancer – underlines Paolo Veronesi, President of the Foundation. In fact, for years we have supported research and the best medical care for young cancer patients through the activation of treatment protocols. We finance an increasing number of researchers engaged daily with cutting-edge projects and we finance PALM Research Project®. This is the innovative research and treatment platform for sick children acute myeloid leukemia. At the same time we carry out information and dissemination activities on the topic of tumors in children and young people, with particular attention to young people and schools”.
#fattivedere: the project dedicated to teenagers
More than 3,000 students will participate in the project until March #let me get a look at you, organized thanks to the contribution of the Veronesi Foundation delegations, in collaboration with the Adolescent Working Group of the AIEOP (Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology). Students will be invited to see the film “That Fantastic Worst Year of My Life” (Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, 2015). Then they will meet the scientific communicators of the Veronesi Foundation and pediatric oncologists and psycho-oncologists.
There will therefore also be the commitment of the Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (Debt), with the three-year campaign “Equitable Access to Care: Unraveling the Challenges“. The aim is to help shed light on the challenges related to childhood cancer, underlining the urgency of ensuring equal access to treatment for all young patients.