The incidence of cancer increases but so does survival, 67% at 5 years

In 2030 there will be three million new cases of cancer in the European Union, 330,000 of them in Spain, despite this “pandemic wave” of new diagnoses, survival is growing progressively and currently reaches 67% in those five years.

In an interview with EFE, oncologist Andrés Cervantes, president of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), which holds its congress in Madrid from October 20 to 24, warns of the need to dedicate resources to this “cancer pandemic that is coming” because if it is not done “there will be a problem”, even though the EU data is favorable and Spain is the fifth best-positioned country in survival.

Cervantes maintains that the origin of this wave of cancer is linked to the aging of the population, but he also observes an increase in cases in those under 50 years of age, which is why he calls for increasing early prevention programs and expanding them to more types of cancer. since until now it is only applied to cervical, breast and colon cancer.

According to this oncologist and scientific director of the INCLIVA Health Research Institute, the EU is studying promoting early diagnosis programs for lung, prostate and gastric esophagus cancers, tumors with still very high mortality.

Pediatric cancer survival, 92%

Regarding pediatric data, the head of the Medical Oncology service at the Valencia Clinical Hospital affirms that the Spanish data is “a little better” than that of the EU and reports that the expectation that a child with cancer can be cured It is 92%, one point more than the European average.

And this generates longer survivors. Cervantes recalls that in the EU there are 1,200,000 individuals who have had cancer and have been cured, of which 300,000 are children.

In the opinion of this expert, these children are going to encounter a problem and that is that when they are 25-30 years old and want to buy a house they are not going to be given a loan, according to the legislation of most European countries.

In Spain, in June a royal decree-law was approved that establishes the right to be forgotten oncologically in the contracting of insurance and banking products for cancer patients once 5 years have passed since the end of treatment and without relapse.

It is about having a homogeneous legislation of the 27 to establish this five-year period for the remission of the disease, a matter that will be discussed at the ESMO congress and where the Spanish Association Against Cancer will propose the socio-occupational reintegration of the survivors and the need for the Government in Spain to develop the decree-law.

The ESMO congress, to which 31,000 professionals have registered, will also report on the latest advances in cervical cancer at all stages of the disease, even in patients with metastases and those in whom all treatments have failed.

In addition, it will advance the latest research in different subtypes of lung cancer, colon cancer and a very lethal thyroid cancer.

The disease is a failure of prevention

This expert is committed to approaching cancer as a 360-degree problem: “Deep down, the disease is a failure of prevention and when it appears it means that we have not been able to prevent it.”

Regarding access to new treatments, Cervantes points out that the activity of oncological drugs is very high and in the last five years the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved 157 medicines, of which about a hundred have arrived in Spain and the rest are in process. of negotiation.

Cervantes emphasizes that ESMO has created a scale that measures the magnitude of the benefit of the medicine, and that will allow priority to be given to those that contribute the most to survival.

Cancer, a chronic disease

This expert admits that “cancer, in some way, is a chronic disease.” And he explains that although the long-term expectancy of some tumors is limited, the median survival has improved in many.

Regarding the difficulty that some patients have in accessing a psycho-oncologist, Cervantes recognizes that this service in public hospitals is very important and “extending it would alleviate a lot of suffering.”

It also makes a clear commitment to healthy lifestyle habits to prevent, but in addition to an adequate diet, it focuses on tobacco for its impact on lung cancer; and in environmental pollution and breast cancer, where a greater risk due to microplastic contamination in the work environment has been demonstrated. With EFE

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