Bridging the Care Gap
“Close the care gap!”Is the slogan used to celebrate World Cancer Day on 4 February 2022, an event promoted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Me too’Italian Association of Physiotherapy-AIFI participates in the global commitment against cancer, a multi-professional action that this year has set itself the goal of “Bridging the care gap” by improving socio-health knowledge on cancer and stimulating action against inequalities in cancer care.
According to the data of the AIOM-AIRTUM 2021 report, in Italy the rates of mortality from all cancers decreased by about 10% in men and 8% in women between 2015 and 2021. The improvements obtained are linked to progress in the diagnostic, therapeutic and prevention fields, but also to the continuous increase in the information that is provided to citizens and their greater degree of awareness: hence the importance of a day that focuses on widespread awareness and on creating a culture of prevention and treatment. “Physiotherapy plays an important role in the fight against cancer before, during and after cancer diagnosis,” he says Simone Cecchetto, president of AIFI, “The physiotherapist guides the person in adopting correct lifestyles and in particular promotes movement because movement is health also with a view to preventing neoplastic disease”.
The role of physiotherapy
But how does physiotherapy work in oncology? He answers Tiziana Galli, national referent for Nis Physiotherapy in Lymphology within AIFI: “Within the multidisciplinary and multiprofessional team, the physiotherapist accompanies the patient throughout the disease process. In some neoplasms the physiotherapy intervention begins in the pre-surgical phase with the taking in charge of the patient and with exercises aimed at improving the mobility of the area that will be subjected to surgery. In the post-surgical period, physiotherapy helps the patient to overcome the acute phase, facilitates functional recovery and prevents outcomes that can reduce autonomy and quality of life “. “The variety of the natural history of oncological disease and the multiplicity of outcomes”, concludes Tiziana Galli, “require a personalized program that accompanies the patient throughout his course, which also responds to complications related to the evolution of the disease”.
Considerations also valid for older patients, as specified by Gilberto Cherri, president of GIS Physiotherapy of Geriatrics of AIFI, “Considering the epidemiological changes in progress also influenced by the increase in life expectancy, the scientific evidence is showing us how cancer treatments are proving effective also in the elderly person, extending their life and improving their quality”. Among the multidisciplinary tools for taking charge of the elderly person suffering from oncological pathologies, physiotherapy plays a non-secondary role that takes place in the dimensions of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation: “The community physiotherapist”, concludes Cherri, “is the figure capable of exercise a pivotal role in the multidisciplinary team, in particular in the multidimensional assessment of the elderly person, able to calibrate the intervention taking into account all the elements that characterize health and disease in the stages of aging, including social ones, the will of family, the education of the patient, their experience of illness and treatment and the non-sanitary determinants of health. Physiotherapy is thus confirmed as an added value in the fight against cancer and in the effective improvement of the patients’ quality of life “.
The participation of AIFI to the themes and values of the World Cancer Day it also expresses itself through events in the area, including the Close the care gap webinar promoted by the Piedmont-Valle D’Aosta Section of the Association. In this regard the AIFI territorial coordinator, Alessandra Malfa, declares “Cancer has become a social disease, but in 30/50% of cases it could be prevented. Our territorial section, to give its contribution on this day, organized a digital meeting to create connections between institutions, health professionals and patient associations with a view to fighting cancer in a collective, health and social way. “