Cancer diagnoses are increasing in Italy compared to 2020. In fact, 390,700 new cases are estimated in 2022, +14,100 in 2 years.
And if prevention screenings have resumed in the post-Covid phase, it is however an alarm for incorrect lifestyles: 33% of adults are overweight and 10% obese, 24% smoke and sedentary people have increased from 23% in 2008 to 31% in 2021. This is the photograph taken from the volume 'The numbers of cancer in Italy 2022', presented today to the Ministry of Health and the result of the collaboration between Aiom (Italian Association of Medical Oncology), Airtum, the Aiom Foundation, Ons, Passes, Silver Passes and Siapec.
The pandemic, experts point out, led to a drop in new diagnoses in 2020 partly linked to the interruption of screening, but today we are witnessing a recovery in cancer cases as in other European countries.
A picture that risks getting worse if an embankment is not put in place for incorrect lifestyles.
The delays in assistance accumulated during the pandemic also weigh
, but there is a resurgence of secondary prevention programs and early stage surgery.
The most frequently diagnosed cancer in 2022 was breast cancer (55,700 cases, +0.5% compared to 2020), followed by colorectal cancer (48,100, +1.5% in men and +1.6% in women). women), lung (43,900, +1.6% in men and +3.6% in women), prostate (40,500, +1.5%) and bladder (29,200, +1.7% in men and +1.5% in women). 0% in women).
On the other hand, the resumption of screening programs should be read positively, having returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, in particular mammography reaches 46% coverage (in 2020 it stood at 30%), for colorectal cancer 30% % (was 17% in 2020) and for the cervix 35% (was 23% in 2020).
The data collected during the two-year period 2020-2021 "marks a moment of acceleration mostly in a pejorative sense as regards behavioral risk factors for cancer: it is a figure that cannot fail to cause concern if we consider that the 40 % of cases and 50% of cancer deaths can be avoided by intervening on preventable risk factors, especially on lifestyles".
This was stated by the Minister of Health,
Orazio Schillaci
, in the preface of the book 'The numbers of cancer in Italy 2022' presented today to the Ministry of Health and now in its twelfth edition.
The pandemic, experts point out, led to a drop in new diagnoses in 2020 partly linked to the interruption of screening, but today we are witnessing a recovery in cancer cases as in other European countries.
A picture that risks getting worse if an embankment is not put in place for incorrect lifestyles.
The delays in assistance accumulated during the pandemic also weigh, but there is a resumption of secondary prevention programs and early stage surgery.
The most frequently diagnosed cancer in 2022 was breast cancer (55,700 cases, +0.5% compared to 2020), followed by colorectal cancer (48,100, +1.5% in men and +1.6% in women). women), lung (43,900, +1.6% in men and +3.6% in women), prostate (40,500, +1.5%) and bladder (29,200, +1.7% in men and +1.5% in women). 0% in women).
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on the other hand, the resumption of screening programs, which returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, should be read positively, in particular the mammography one reaches 46% coverage (in 2020 it stood at 30%), for the colorectal one 30% ( it was 17% in 2020) and for the cervix 35% (it was 23% in 2020).
The reactivation of secondary prevention programs corresponds to an increase in the number of surgeries for colorectal and breast cancer, even at an early stage.
These updated data "invite more and more to strengthen actions to counter diagnostic delay and to promote secondary and above all primary prevention, acting on the control of risk factors starting from tobacco smoke, obesity, physical inactivity,
