Liver cancer: The stigma

2023-10-16 08:50:25

Liver cancer has a great stigma. However, it is one of the malignant tumors with the highest number of fatal patients. The “Let’s talk without a filter” campaign aims to end their prejudices and invisibility.

Liver ultrasound. EFE/Manuel Bruque.

He Liver cancer It is the third cancer with the highest number of fatal patients and the sixth most diagnosed malignant tumor in the world.

Its future incidence may be altered due to the increase in the prevalence of some of the risk factors, such as obesity or alcohol consumption.

Despite its risks, liver cancer continues to be an invisible and stigmatized disease. This pathology has few therapeutic options and few improvements in survival in recent decades, as indicated by AstraZeneca. New effective treatment alternatives are required, especially in the case of bile duct cancer.

With the aim of raising awareness and raising voices about liver cancer, AstraZeneca has promoted the “Let’s talk without filter” campaign. Its mission is to end stigmas and prejudices about the disease to promote an open and sincere conversation about the situation of these patients and the challenges in treatment.

(From left to right: Ángeles Blanco, journalist; Doctor Andrés Muñoz, medical oncologist at the Digestive Unit of the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital in Madrid; Marta Moreno, director of Corporate Affairs and Market Access at AstraZeneca Spain; and Doctor Bruno Sangro, director of the Hepatology Unit at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and principal investigator at CIBEREHD. Image provided by AstraZeneca)

Campaign development

The campaign to break the stigma of liver cancer has a web space with useful information about the disease. In addition, it includes interviews in video format with pathology professionals and patients, who give their personal vision.

These interviews have the endorsement of the National Federation of Liver Patients and Transplants (FNETH). They have been carried out to give a voice to the professionals and patients themselves with the intention that they themselves be the ones to relate the situation around hepatocellular carcinoma and bile duct cancer.

We want to specify the needs of people suffering from the disease to find effective and accessible solutions. Also emphasize the importance of promoting prevention and early diagnosis.

Liver cancer: the stigma

In this same sense, the Dr. Bruno Sangro, director of the Hepatology Unit of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and principal investigator at the CIBEREHD, warns that “the most stigmatized diseases are those on which the least research is done.” If the stigma of liver cancer is broken, therefore, investment in its research will be encouraged.

In the case of bile duct cancer, Dr. Andrés Muñoz, medical oncologist at the Digestive Unit of the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital in Madridpoints out that “the situation is tragic because we have advances that have demonstrated their benefit in patients with bile duct cancer, but we do not have good access to this therapeutic innovation in our country, especially if we compare ourselves with other countries at the European level.” .

According to Dr. Muñoz, the prognosis for this disease continues to be very adverse for. The
5-year survival is estimated at around 15-20%.

Awareness for early diagnosis

Dr. Bruno Sangro warns that hepatocellular carcinoma is usually diagnosed in an advanced stage.

“The liver does not hurt, it works in silence, and, therefore, it is important to anticipate. If we wait for cancer to show symptoms or complications it is usually too late, so we need early diagnosis programs to anticipate and be able to identify the tumor in an initial phase in the at-risk population,” says the specialist.

This campaign aims, in addition to breaking the stigma surrounding liver cancer, to raise awareness among the population about the disease so that cases can be detected early, whenever possible.

“Liver diseases, such as liver cancer, have always been invisible because they are related to alcohol consumption and unhealthy practices. What’s more, many patients hide it, even from their family for this reason,” says Eva Bech, president of the FNETH.

“That’s why it’s so important to bring it to light and normalize it. Visibility is not only beneficial for the patient, but also for research. Because without research, there is no treatment and, without treatment, the patient has no way out,” he adds.