2023-08-23 18:01:08
“In the next 20 years, breast cancer will increase by 20%, especially in young people, who today least expect it and are outside the screening programmes”, said Corrado Tinterri, director of the Breast Center of the Humanitas hospital in Milan , speaking at the event “Gli Incontri del Principe” organized in Viareggio, an opportunity to talk about the importance of prevention and take stock of the Italian situation, also in comparison with the rest of Europe.
“Breast cancer is the most frequent for women – recalls Tinterri – In 2022 we had about 60,000 new cases. But the important fact is that Italy is the first country in Europe for survival at 5 and 10 years, with data at nearly 90% and 78% respectively.We are therefore well supporting this epidemiological increase in breast cancer.”
The number of living women with metastatic breast cancer is also increasing. In Italy – she underlines – we have about 50,000 women who lead a good life despite having a chronic disease. We are a country that is doing well in terms of health pathways and programming in this area, but we can do better, for example by reducing the strong regional discrepancies between North and South”. Tinterri has no doubts: “Not all regions have implemented the plan for the implementation of breast centers, those dedicated to diagnosis, which we know significantly reduces the probability of dying from this disease. And some – he remarks – still have an inadequacy in the treatment pathways. Much remains to be done. Over the next 20 years, this tumor will increase by 20%, especially among young people, who today least expect it and are not included in screening programmes”.
For Tinterri there is then a “relationship between the birth rate, breastfeeding and the risk of breast cancer. The birth rate has progressively decreased over the last 50 years. We recall similar situations in America and China. We need to understand what can be anticipated and make early diagnoses – highlights the expert – The average second pregnancy is at 43, an age that is often combined, unfortunately, with the possibility of having breast cancer”.
And on the training of specialized doctors, Tinterri is certain: “we must train doctors who treat breast cancer – he warns – In this sense, the University is latent and lagging behind, we need a leap forward with new figures of doctors who treat it specifically “This is an appeal to the Ministry of Research. We hope that the national and European reality is taken into account and how the disease is changing. We need doctors who remain in Italy to treat tumors”.
“It’s still hard to talk about cancer – adds Rosanna D’Antona, president of Europa Donna Italia – but it is instead important to share scientific information and personal experiences. In these 30 years of association we have come to be present in 47 countries of enlarged Europe. Today, the awareness of patients with respect to this pathology has changed. We want to know more, greater participation in the treatment process, more dialogue with doctors. But also the strength to speak to the institutions so that they implement more favorable rules for better treatments. We know very well that the Italian health system has important economic constraints”, but breast cancer is the “first pathology of death of female patients and therefore we need to discriminate between better planning of health expenditure on such widespread pathologies. We want to encourage mammography screenings – he says – as prevention is the only weapon we have, and then go and get treatment in centers specialized only on breast cancer”.
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