Issues
In search of the lost rights
The Numbers of Cancer in Italy (latest available data) estimate over 390 thousand new diagnoses of all cancers in 2022. Cancer deaths in 2021 were over 181 thousand, a figure substantially similar to the forecast of about 175 thousand deaths in 2022. COVID pandemic deaths were, in Italy, about 190 thousand in 3 years, so an average of 60 thousand per year.
These data show how cancer mortality is still a major problem, to the point that, often, we refer to cancer (which is not one but a collection of different diseases) as “the evil of the century”, “the ugly evil”, a disease that cannot be named because “cancer equals death” and, often, equals “death with pain”.
We often speak of a battle against cancer from which only a few survivors emerge victorious (always the warlike simile, the necessity of the fight, a warlike language that patients, first, dislike). However, little mathematical knowledge should make us realize that 180 thousand is less than half of 390 thousand and, therefore, at least 50 percent survive diagnosis. Nonetheless, one could think that they will die from cancer sooner or later, but the reality is different.
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