Back from vacation? It can become a strategic moment to realize good wellness resolutions and start again with prevention before diving back into everyday life. What checks to do? For the experts “a cardiological screening and a dermatological visit would be indicated to check for any damage caused by seasonal stress. It would also be important to carry out a gynecological visit to rule out the presence of infections that may have been contracted in the summer period. The screening of sexually transmitted diseases”. And then there is the important chapter of cancer prevention, underlines Armando Bartolazzi, contact person of the histology section of Artemisia Lab, manager of the histology and pathological anatomy unit at the Sant’Andrea university hospital and delegate for Lilt (Italian League for the fight against tumors) for international reports.
“With the return to work – he explains – all of us are required to seriously reflect on the importance of cancer prevention, dramatically neglected in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, which has a very important social relevance, the public-private dualism must be decisively overcome, and waiting lists for secondary cancer prevention must be definitively eliminated.All this is in line with what has been established by the European Commission which presented the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan a few years ago, a project aimed at relaunching cancer prevention in the Member States”.
The main scientific societies, recalls Bartolazzi, “have calculated that, in the midst of the pandemic, new diagnoses of cancer have decreased by 11% compared to 2019, new pharmacological treatments by 13%, surgical interventions by 18%. Screenings for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer they recorded a reduction of 2 and a half million examinations. These delays must be remedied as soon as possible with the commitment of everyone, even the patients themselves”. Early diagnosis of the tumor, the specialist urges, “remains the only real possibility not only to favor certain cures, but also to avoid the implosion of a universal national health system that everyone envies us but which is no longer sustainable for the demand for health services too expensive”.
For this reason, underlines Bartolazzi, “it is necessary to urgently implement actions aimed at achieving an oncological diagnosis as early as possible involving all the most virtuous health structures present in the area, both public and private, in order to obtain a marked reduction of waiting lists and consequently the immense economic and social costs that appear on the horizon.The time has come for the public and private sectors to cooperate in a virtuous and non-competitive way: this approach should be considered a real ‘social mission’ for safeguard the NHS and the health and quality of life of citizens who cannot always wait”.
In the Lazio area, assures Mariastella Giorlandino, administrator of Artemisia Lab Networks and president of the Artemisia Foundation, “the Artemisia Lab Network is ready and operational”, with a “multidisciplinary team of specialists, making global clinical monitoring available to patients, accompanying the ‘assisted throughout the diagnostic process up to follow-up”.
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