Milan, April 8 (beraking latest news Salute) – The hospital enters the cancer patient’s home thanks to ‘OncoHome’, a pilot project aimed at patients with advanced or metastatic solid cancer who are undergoing oral therapy. The service provides for remote assistance management for 70% of patients and home visits for the remaining 30%. The leader of the initiative is the National Cancer Institute (Int) of Milan, which together with the Irccs San Raffaele hospital in the Lombard capital and the Asst of Cremona will follow 300 patients at home (100 assisted by the Int, 100 by the San Raffaele and 100 from Cremona), under the auspices of AIOM, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology.
OncoHome – explains a note – was made possible thanks to a fundraising campaign to which companies and associations contributed: Ipsen, Janssen Oncology, Roche, Pfizer, Amgen, Novartis Farma, Bayer and Medea. The three centers protagonists of the project foresee the application of the same operative and management modality of the path of care and assistance to cancer patients. The drugs are prepared by the hospital pharmacy and sent home in the case of patients followed in remote assistance, or delivered directly if home care has been activated.
“Today – says Marco Votta, president of the Int – it is a priority to guarantee cancer patients the necessary therapies, as it has always been, but at the same time it is necessary to take all the necessary measures to protect them from Covid-19”, also considering that Cancer patients are at a risk up to 3.5 times greater than the healthy population of contracting a SARS-CoV-2 infection and developing more severe forms. “OncoHome is the right strategy to bring the hospital home to the sick – adds Votta – guaranteeing all the assistance they need through home visits, but also to offer words of comfort and a physical closeness that, now more than ever , are essential for those living with an oncological disease “.
“OncoHome is a pioneering project for a different care modality to be implemented in the territory – underlines Filippo de Braud, director of the department and division of Medical Oncology and Hematology of the Int – The goal is to reduce hospital accesses by 50% and protect as a consequence cancer patients at risk of infection, providing them with the same level of care they would receive in a hospital setting. The data we will collect will allow us to evaluate the possibility of creating a national assistance network “.
“The analysis of medical records has allowed us to identify cancer patients who can be followed remotely, about two thirds of the total, and those who need home checks – reports Giuseppe Procopio, head of the Simple Structure of Medical Oncology genito-urinaria dell’Int – It should be clarified, however, that this is not home care for the terminally ill: as part of the OncoHome Project, patients do not receive palliative care, but real oncological therapies “.
“The team is made up of a nurse and an oncologist who go to the patient’s home once a week, separately – underlines Valentina Guadalupi, oncologist of the Structure directed by Procopio – These are complex visits, which include the patient’s physical examination. , the detection of vital parameters, any medications and, if necessary, also the education of the patient and family member in the management of the side effects related to taking the drug. A dedicated number has also been activated, in case of emergencies or doubts”.
“OncoHome allows de-hospitalization of oncological assistance and treatments with a positive psychological impact on the patient, who feels cared for and safe at home in a moment of great difficulty like the one we are experiencing – commented Stefano Cascinu, head of medical oncology. at San Raffaele in Milan, and Vanesa Gregorc, director of the strategic oncological diagnostic-therapeutic innovation program of IRCCS – Thanks to the support of telemedicine, which allows to reduce the doctor-patient distance, a direct integrative relationship is established between the territory and the specialized centers “.
“OncoHome for us is the right continuation of home assistance activated in emergency in mid-March 2020 in full pandemic, for the assistance of our cancer patients, including those with Covid-19 infection – specifies Rodolfo Passalacqua, director of the ” Operative Unit of Oncology of the Asst of Cremona – In the context of this project, the patient is an active part and has the task of completing the questionnaires cyclically which, through questions concerning the impact on the quality of life of the treatments in progress, they serve to better understand the real toxicity of drugs “.
“The territorial management of cancer patients is one of the issues that will become more important in the future, in consideration of the increasing number of patients who become chronic with the disease and who can use oral or subcutaneous cancer treatments which, in themselves, do not require the of a hospital administration – comments Giordano Beretta, Aiom national president and head of medical oncology at Humanitas Gavazzeni Bergamo – The OncoHome project represents one of the first examples of the use of IT tools and a new way of administering drugs for the cancer patient, to limit the number of accesses to hospitals. Thus, an attempt is made to create a new reality, territorial oncology, in which the patient maintains contact with the structure that is treating him, also through access to the doctor’s home oncologist and nurse. The level of innovation of such a project could, over time, to radically change the way in which cancer patients are managed, to the advantage of greater safety and a reduction in travel “.