“In Italy, 6,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed every year, but only 40% of the women affected have the chance of surviving the disease. This is certainly an alarming figure, because it denotes a lack of diagnosis. This is why it is essential to help and support women by providing them with more information on the type of ovarian cancer, on the importance of prevention and early diagnosis. There may be a genetic mutation in women who are familiar with it and therefore genomic tests can be done for Brca1 and Brca2 and also. of HRD tests because there may be a DNA mutation.” Lega senator Elena Murelli, member of the 10th Permanent Commission (Social Affairs, health, public and private work, social security) of the Senate, explains this to Adnkronos Salute on the occasion of World Ovarian Cancer Day which falls on 8 May every year, established by the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition which brings together 25 patient associations, including Acto Onlus. Information and timely diagnosis are the watchwords of a day that sees debates, meetings and information initiatives in the major cities of the countries involved.
“These tests – underlines Murelli – are not yet included within the essential levels of assistance (Lea), an aspect which determines regional differences. In fact, there are Regions, such as Puglia for example, which have included the possibility of carrying out genomic tests, whereas in other regions the faculty is left directly to the hospital itself. Here, these differences in treatment from region to region, also in the therapeutic diagnosis process, must be overcome in the name of equity. This is what clinicians and patients ask of us representatives of the institutions.”
“Patients naturally ask for fairness in treatment, access to medicines – adds Murelli – as well as psychological, nutritional and sexological support, because ovarian cancer also affects sexual difficulties”. But also “for clinicians it is important that genomic tests are included within the LEAs for specialized centers, because they must be accurate and naturally followed by a multidisciplinary team. The main commitment of the institutions, therefore, is to determine a path from diagnosis to treatment for these patients, first of all doing prevention, informing women and when the tumor is diagnosed, following them through these tests to determine an adequate and personalized treatment path”.
Murelli is part of the board of the Ovarian Cancer Commitment (Occ), a European initiative promoted by AstraZeneca with the European Society of Gynecological Oncology (Esgo) and the European Network of Gynecological Cancer Advocacy Groups (Engage).
“I decided to be part of this committee – he reports – because I believe the transversality of the entities that participate is important. Therefore, in addition to AstraZeneca which promoted the establishment of the Occ, there are also scientific societies, health professionals, associations of patients, the first who must sit at the table and be listened to”. The main objective of the committee “is to provide training and information on ovarian cancer and write a policy paper, an institutional document which then naturally commits legislators to finding an adequate diagnosis and treatment path for all patients”, concludes the senator.
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