ROME – Cancer diagnoses are increasing in Italy compared to 2020 and in 2022 there are an estimated 390,700 new cases, +14,100 in 2 years. And if in the post-Covid phase, they are prevention screenings resumedit is though alarm for incorrect lifestyles: il 33% of adults is in overweight and the 10% obeseil 24% wealth and sedentary people have increased from 23% in 2008 to 31% in 2021. It is the photograph taken by the volume ‘Cancer numbers in Italy 2022’, presented to the Ministry of Health and the result of collaboration between Aiom (Italian Association of Medical Oncology), Airtum, the Aiom Foundation, Ons, Passi, Passi d’argento and Siapec.
The pandemic, experts point out, 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. A picture that risks getting worse if an embankment is not put in place for incorrect lifestyles. The delays in assistance accumulated during the pandemic also weigh, but there is a resumption of secondary prevention programs and early stage surgery.
The most frequently diagnosed cancer, in 2022, is the breast cancer (55,700 cases, +0.5% compared to 2020), followed by colorectal (48,100, +1.5% in men and +1.6% in women), lung (43,900, +1.6% in men and +3.6% in women), prostate (40.500, +1,5%) e bladder (29,200, +1.7% in men and +1.0% in women). On the other hand, the resumption of screening programs should be read positively, having returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, in particular the mammography one reaches 46% coverage (in 2020 it stood at 30%), for the colorectal of 30 % (was 17% in 2020) and for the cervix 35% (was 23% in 2020).
The reactivation of secondary prevention programs corresponds to a increase in the number of surgeries per colorectal and breast canceralso in initial stage. These updated data “invite more and more to strengthen actions to counter diagnostic delay and to promote secondary and above all primary prevention, acting on the control of risk factors starting from tobacco smoke, obesity, physical inactivity, alcohol abuse and the need to promote vaccinations against infections known to cause cancer, such as HPV”, says Saverio Cinieri, President of Aiom. The positive figure, however, is that compared to the 2.5 million citizens who lived in Italy in 2006 with a previous diagnosis of cancer, this rose to around 3.6 million in 2020, 37% more than observed just 10 years earlier.