Rethinking the entire cancer treatment and research system by learning from the lesson of Covid-19 that a different and faster way is possible as well as necessary to give more to the more than 3.6 million cancer patients. This is the plan on which the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom) will work in the near future which has already begun. Gathered in Rome on the occasion of the 23rd Congress of the Scientific Society, oncologists have baptized it as the ‘New Deal’ because they intend to make a qualitative leap by committing more to primary prevention and to restart screening.
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The priorities on which to act
If the rapid approval of anti-Covid vaccines has shown that the time needed to make innovative therapies available can be shortened, it is also true that the damage of the pandemic caused by interruptions in screening is heavy and difficult to recover. For this reason, the commitment of oncologists is maximum and looks to a greater implementation of the Regional Oncological Networks also for a stronger hospital-territory collaboration to guarantee adherence to therapies for diseases that finally become chronic. “This end of 2021 and all of ’22 will have to be strongly dedicated to the recovery after the terrible two years we have had to face – explains the national president Giordano Beretta. “Two and a half million lost screenings must be recovered, which have already led to the diagnosis of more advanced cancers. For these aspects, like Aiom, in the coming weeks we will launch two specific campaigns aimed at all age groups of the population. But we must also focus on patients already affected by a neoplasm, favoring adherence to therapies and the resumption of diagnostic and follow-up tests. Telemedicine should be better used and regulated for the management of remote follow-up, favoring patients and ensuring continuity of care. Collaboration with patient associations must also be strengthened as soon as possible ”.
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Get back to good habits
The damage of the pandemic can also be seen in the bad habits that many Italians (including some cancer patients) have clung to during lockdowns, starting with food as a refuge and a sedentary lifestyle. “The Coronavirus – continues Beretta – has imposed a radical change in our agenda and a profound rethinking of the work of medical oncology. First of all, we must work to inform citizens of the need not to smoke, to control their weight, to combat a sedentary lifestyle, to limit excessive alcohol consumption. Today the data on these erroneous lifestyles have become worrying and we must reverse an alarming trend ”.
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The TV of oncologists for patients
As part of the Aiom project launched today in Rome at the opening of the 23rd national congress of the Scientific Society there is also a broader programming of AIOM TV (www.youtube.com/c/AIOMTv), the official broadcaster of Italian oncologists, conceived precisely to maintain contact with patients and caregivers, through new initiatives. Videos will be produced with interviews with different specialists and practical advice will be given on how to deal with the disease. Sports instructors and nutritionists will explain which physical activities can be carried out, during and after the treatments, and what diet to follow. “We want to be able to reach patients even remotely to provide them with useful and certified information – he says Saverio Cinieri, president-elect Aiom. To do this, it is now essential to use all the digital tools at our disposal, including social media. The task of medical oncology must be to help the sick not only when we administer the treatments but also in daily life. Survival from cancer is increasing and new needs are opening up to which health care and the entire country system must be able to respond. However, it is necessary to avoid easy triumphalisms and emphasize that cancer is a group of very complex and difficult to treat diseases. And a difficult future awaits us, a real “cancer pandemic”. According to the latest estimates, the number of deaths caused by cancer throughout the European Union is set to grow by 24% by 2035 ”.
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The White Paper of Oncology
The 11th edition of The White Book, The Service Charter of Italian Oncology 2021, is also presented at the 23rd Aiom National Congress, a real census of the healthcare system active in our country. “We took a detailed photograph of the assistance in our country – underlines Beretta. The data collected demonstrate how it is necessary to activate or implement the Regional Oncological Networks throughout the Peninsula. Delegating part of the assistance from the hospital to the territory is fundamental as Covid-19 has shown, especially in the most acute phases of the disease. This can only happen if we improve the interconnection of doctors and various health facilities in an efficient network system. In this way, multidisciplinarity, the availability of innovative therapies are favored and the human and financial resources used in the fight against cancer can be optimized ”.
More resources, but a plan to use them well
Oncologists also reiterate the need for more funds for research, assistance and technological updating. “New funds can arrive from the NRP to further incentivize medical-scientific research – concludes Cinieri. We are making important strides especially with regard to ever more accurate diagnoses and better patient selection on a solid molecular basis. This allows us to have multidisciplinary therapeutic strategies and new and more effective treatments. The positive results achieved, however, risk being nullified if we do not improve the health organization and overcome some bureaucratic-administrative difficulties. For example, there remains the problem of new drugs which accumulate significant delays before being actually available to patients. On average, more than two years pass before a therapy, approved by the national regulatory body, is included in the regional handbooks and therefore can be prescribed by clinicians. As representatives of Italian medical oncology, we are therefore clamoring for the launch of a “New Deal” for a more virtuous treatment system that can also be an example for other European countries “.
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