health|4 mins Read
Covid-19 has a long-term impact on women's health
March 7, 2022
Did you know that ...
More than 1,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Italy every day?
It is estimated that there are around 377,000 new cases of cancer in our country every year, 195,000 among men and 182,000 among women.
Non-melanoma skin carcinomas are not included in these statistics.
Survival rates have improved: the 5-year survival rate is now 65% for women and 59.4% for men.
As the report I numeri del cancro in Italia 2021 shows (hyperlink to the .pdf file), a reduction in the mortality rate was recorded for all tumours in Italy in 2021 compared to the average rates in the rest of Europe and, in the last six years, it dropped by 9.7% for men and 8% for women.
The results provided in the document were obviously affected by the Covid-19 pandemic that left a profound mark, causing more limited access to check-ups and delays in treatments.
It is of paramount importance to keep the level of attention high and share a common commitment so that research, care and prevention become increasingly effective and efficient.
Prevention first and foremost
Early diagnosis is certainly an excellent form of prevention to monitor one’s health, sometimes the only and real guarantee of a full recovery.
A powerful weapon that, along with research, contributes to the reduction in the mortality rate and makes cancer increasingly curable.
The role of prevention in addressing this health need is based on identification of the determinants of the disease and quantification of the risk of developing it.
A correct lifestyle and periodic screening are essential in the overall strategy to fight cancer, above all when there were other cases in the family.
Source: salute.gov.it
We explore new avenues every day
AXA Partners has placed attention to health at the heart of its business.
We consider research vital in order for technological innovation to be able to offer assistance to people affected by a disease.
We try to identify high-level partners whose mission is to invent innovative products, able to use state-of-the-art treatments. Our aim is to find the best solutions and in this way offer patients different options.
We believe that you are unique
Each tumour is unique: understanding its deep nature is key to effectively fight it (1). In many cases, having a targeted strategy that directs the patient towards the best treatment options can be crucial.
That is what personalised medicine aims to do.
The progress achieved by scientific research now offers greater knowledge: about the genetics and mutations that affect the growth and spread of the tumour and about the environmental factors or lifestyles that cause these mutations (e.g., smoking, viruses, obesity, hormones and lack of exercise). Even although two people may have the same type of tumour, for example, in the lungs, the genetic mutations may differ and their bodies may react differently to the treatments.
The progress made in research has led to a marked increase in the number of drugs that act, striking a specific target. These ‘targeted’ drugs, now available in ever-increasing numbers, allow doctors to make choices based on the personal characteristics of each patient, prescribing the most effective and least harmful drugs (2).
Source:
(1) Sequenziare il genoma tumorale per una medicina di precisione a misura di paziente (medendi.org)
(2) Schwaederle M, Kurzrock R. Oncoscience 2015; 2(10): 779–780.
Hope beyond Insurance
Cancer is one of the most dreaded diseases of our times.
Besides the devastating effect on one’s health, the disease entails increased expenditure and an ensuing drop in income in one of the most difficult periods of one’s life.
Thankfully, more and more often the disease can be beaten but, sometimes, returning to a ‘normal’ life can take months, or even years.
Our strategic partnership with Roche Italia has led to the inclusion in our health policies of the services of Foundation Medicine (company in the Roche group) for the genomic profiling of solid tumours in a metastatic or locally advanced stage.
Each tumour manifests a combination of genetic alterations that is almost unique, we could almost call it a fingerprint (1).
The ASMO, Advanced Second Medical Opinion, product allows the Insured to access innovative services that use NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) technologies through their GP. The information obtained from the genomic alterations identified in solid tumours allows identification of possible treatments that are either already available or being experimented. In short, the potentially most effective ‘ad personam’ therapeutic strategy.
However, let's look at each aspect.
We relieve the patient and his/her family from day-to-day burdens, we are at their side at a time when they are at their most vulnerable, offering healthcare services 24/7: from urgent medical assistance to home assistance and other healthcare, from emotional support to the digital management of the treatment plan and the programmed healthcare transfer throughout Italy to follow any medical treatments.
Source: (1) Analisi genomica del tumore: chi, quanto e quando potrebbe davvero beneficiarne (medendi.org)
Diagnostics and pharmaceutical research have taken huge strides forward and reached important goals in the last decade. At the same time, the world’s population, including that of Italy, has grown and aged. These dynamics pose urgent challenges about how to combine the benefits deriving from scientific innovation for patients and citizens, with the efficiency and sustainability of the system. And, faced with a pandemic that has still not been completely defeated, there is the risk of an exacerbation of the inequalities or barriers to the access to better healthcare opportunities. Precision oncology, that allows personalisation of the diagnostic-therapeutic processes based on the characteristics of each tumour, going beyond the traditional approach that offers all patients the same drug, may be part of the solution to the problems described because it reduces waste, inefficiencies and delays, while improving the clinical results. However, our distinctive approach goes beyond this, aiming at forging strategic and innovative partnerships with public and private operators, such as in this case with AXA Partners Italia, at the service of the Health System with the aim of joining forces and exploring new avenues to extend access to innovation to the highest possible number of patients, cutting times and costs for the community.
Oncology aesthetics meets healthcare
An oncology patient faces many difficulties, not only physically. Cancer treatments have repercussions on the patient's entire organism.
The body can undergo severe transformations caused by the cancer and by the treatments, with real distress due to the alteration of one’s physical appearance and to life itself in that period.
During treatments, the skin and its adnexa are ‘attacked’ by the drugs used to fight the tumour, with consequences for the skin that can be serious, often debilitating. For this reason we included a real innovation on the market in our health policies: the costs of APEO Oncology Aesthetics treatments.
Specialists in APEO Oncology Aesthetics are professionals who understand the patient's treatments, assess the presence of dermal toxicity caused by the treatments and apply targeted and scientifically validated aesthetic protocols, developed in close collaboration with oncologists, surgeons, radiotherapists, physiotherapists, dermatologists and cosmetologists, creators and teachers of the APEO training courses.
In such a stressful moment, our priority is to help people facing this tortuous and bumpy path: regaining one’s appearance helps restore confidence and face the disease with greater resilience.
Keeping the skin in the best possible condition allows continuation of the treatments and a better quality of life.
We treat every aspect of health
Oncology aesthetics aims to teach women suffering from cancer how to take care of their appearance and wellbeing, despite the disease. It informs and helps women from an aesthetic point of view, helping to improve the quality of their life before and during cancer treatments.
During the convention promoted by APEO on “Sanità Integrativa: l’Estensione dei nomenclatori anche alle prestazioni riferite al benessere delle persone in terapia oncologica” (Complementary Healthcare: extension of the nomenclators also to the wellbeing of patients undergoing cancer treatment), Simona Cavallo, Head of Customer & Innovation, and Simone Monteverdi, Head of Network, spoke, as representatives of AXA Partners Italia, about our group's ongoing commitment to access to health prevention and new types of care that can accompany patients and their families.
The beautician must make culture their hallmark
