Tailor -made prevention and therapy. With the person who becomes the only real point of reference. To play in advance on tumors and face them at best. Because the World Cancer Day It highlights how and how much there is to do. The theme of the ‘World Cancer Day’ is’United by Unique‘. The goal is to sensitize citizens, patients and institutions to consider the uniqueness of each person affected by cancer, guaranteeing a taking charge that takes into account the emotional, psychological and social aspects related to the disease.
More attention to risks
Overweight and obesity. Reduced physical activity. Smoke. Consumption of alcohol. Four out of ten tumors depend on modifiable risk factors, such as those mentioned above. But it takes a tailor -made response for everyone, both in care and prevention.
Because in the world more than a billion people lived with obesity, a condition that in Italy affects 10% of adults (18-69 year olds), that is, about 4 million and 100 thousand citizens. The serious weight excess is a risk factor related to 12 different types of cancer. However, the attention of healthcare professionals towards the correct lifestyles. In our country, only 43% of the excess ponderal people use indications to lose weight by white cups.
Even citizens with other oncological risk conditions they receive few recommendations On healthy lifestyles. Less than 5 out of 10 smokers (48%) is addressed by a doctor the advice to quit smoking. Regular physical activity is recommended only to 30% of sedentary. Just 7% of alcohol consumers are recommended not to drink.
“In 2024, in Italy, 390,100 new diagnoses of cancer were estimated – reports Saverio Cinieri, president of the Aiom Foundation. Almost 60% of adults consume alcohol, 33% are overweight and 10% are obese, 28% are sedentary, 24% smoke. We need more commitment to sensitize all citizens, especially people who do not adopt healthy lifestyles. Alcohol consumption is related to 7 types of carcinoma, obesity to 12. And smoking, alone, is responsible for 25% of the oncological deaths in the world “.
“The ‘People-Centred Care’ also leads to considering the social context of each patient. For example, cigarette smoke, sedentary lifestyle and weight excess are more widespread between people with economic difficulties and a low level of education. Financial problems have already been shown to determine a reduction in the survival of oncological patients, with a risk of death than 20%higher, even in a universalistic health service such as ours. Now it is necessary to widen the horizon of prevention programs, considering the impact of economic obstacles on adhesion to healthy lifestyles “.
Tailor -made approach
In short, we focus on prevention, but not only. According to Francesco Perrone, president of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (Aiom), “the prevention of tumors must be increasingly at the center of our attention and our actions. In 2022, in the world, they were 20 million new cases of cancer and 9.7 million deaths. 40% of the dead are caused by modifiable risk factors, in particular by smoke, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle and weight excess “.
Coming to carethe new dimension of cancer care, in fact, is the so-called ‘People-Centred Care’ that It focuses 360 degrees on the person affected by the diseaseinvolving family members and the entire community that surrounds the patient in the welfare path. This approach, which exceeds the one centered on the patient or on the person, has the potential to improve clinical results and quality of life, with a more efficient use of resources and a reduction in the costs of assistance “.
“A careful monitoring of the appropriate use of therapies is also part of the ‘People-Centred Care’-recalls Perrone. Aiom and the Italian drug agency (AIFA) have established a working group, to analyze the monitoring activity carried out by the regulatory body in the oncological field. Thanks to this collaboration, we have highlighted that the profile of patients involved in clinical studies is different from that of those who, after approval, are treated with the same drugs in the oncology departments, that is, in daily clinical practice “.
The opinion of the sick on care
In the meantime, the “weight” of the word of the sick are also increasingly important on the therapies front. And not only for the growing role of associations which represent them: also in Italy the legislative bases are being placed to define the contours of the participation of these forms of Advocacy in health choices with greater precision. If everything goes as we hope, it is to be expected that the weight of the associations will grow. And we will go beyond what is already happening, with the activity of the associations themselves within the Ministry or of theDrug agency. The role will in fact be different and wider, given that a representative of associations in bodies within the Ministry must be inserted as well as in the investigation paths on drugs.
Not only that. A cultural change of great importance in the oncology of recent years is represented by growing attention to the results reported by the patient (Patient-Reported Outcomes, Pros), both in experiments and in clinical practice. “The pros and quality of life of the patient are increasingly an important piece of the complex mosaic assessment of the value of the oncological treatments and fully fall into the ‘People-Centred Care’-explains Massimo Di Maio, president elected to the AOM. This awareness is increasing, also because several scientific societies have launched messages in favor of the role of the pros. Attention to these tools also involves regulatory agencies “.
The result is that, in recent years, almost 70% of tumors clinical studies include quality of life of patients among the endpoints, that is, among the objectives to be analyzed. The data relating to the quality of life, although included among the endpoints, however are published only in about half of the cases in which they were collected. It is therefore important to improve the timeliness with which this information is communicated and published.
Not only that. “Today few hospitals adopt systematic monitoring measures of symptoms by patients – the expert knows. We need a change of pace, because the collection of the point of view of the sick on the outcome of a treatment does not remain a simple rhetorical affirmation but becomes an essential method “.
