Several associations in the health field launched this Thursday an alert campaign on the importance of knowing the symptoms of lung cancer, stressing that an early diagnosis can save lives and that the disease “does not go on vacation”.
In a statement on the occasion of World Lung Cancer Day, which is celebrated on August 1, Associação Careca Power, Pulmonale, the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF), the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF) and the Society Portuguese Pneumology (SPP) leaves the warn about the need to act in the presence of symptoms and warn that delays in access are reflected in the diagnosis.
The director of the Medical Oncology service of the Porto University Hospital Center, António Araújo, recognizes “delays and failures” in the National Health Service (SNS) in terms of access to primary and emergency care, highlighting that these are reflected in “delays in diagnosis”.
It is natural that during the holiday period there are even more delayed consultations and exams. Because there are already many difficulties in the SNS in terms of imaging, radiology and interventional radiology, essential for staging lung cancer, which often cause delays in carrying out tests in normal time”, considers the specialist, quoted in the notice. , and she adds: “It is natural that during the holiday period things get worse”.
The organizations participating in this campaign point out that lung cancer is often confused with other diseases due to the symptoms (cough, sputum and shortness of breath) often “associated with more benign diseases”.
Although smoking remains the leading cause of lung cancer, The incidence of the disease in non-smokers “is a major public health problem”says Antonio Araújo.
The population, and even, on occasion, family doctors themselves, end up thinking first of what is most frequent and forget to include the possibility of lung cancer in the equation. Which often translates into delays in diagnosis”, he recalls.
In a disease that has a “reserved prognosis”, he adds, “The more advanced the stage, that is, the more advanced the tumor, the lower the probability of survival of the patient.”
“That is why it is essential to make the diagnosis as soon as possible, to increase the chances of survival,” he insists.
The specialist also reinforces that, with the new drugs that have emerged, it is possible “to give our patients more time and better quality of life.”
With the advent of targeted therapy, we have been able to greatly increase survival in cases that have potentially treatable molecular targets, which corresponds to about 25-30% of the population with lung cancer”, he explains.
Added to this “new therapeutic weaponry” is immunotherapy: “it was a great advance and a paradigm shift in the treatment of lung cancer.”
In favor of early diagnosis, António Araújo defends the creation of a lung cancer screening program in Portugal: “There is already scientific evidence that justifies the implementation of at least one pilot screening program.”
Given that early diagnosis is a fundamental weapon to give our patients a better quality of life, screening would be a very important tool so that we can diagnose patients earlier, and it could also be used to promote smoking cessation. It is time for politicians to look with interest at its implementation, ”he considers.
Several experts have warned that many patients with lung, breast and digestive cancer are arriving at hospitals in a more advanced state due to delays in access to medical care caused by the pandemic.
The latest data from the National Institute of Statistics on causes of death in 2020 reveal that respiratory diseases (excluding Covid-19) caused 11,266 deaths.
Data from the Fundação Portuguesa do Pulmão indicate that in the first year of the pandemic, more than 5,000 new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed in Portugal.
Source: Observadora
