Advances in research for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer have made it possible to achieve up to 87% survival 5 years after diagnosis. However, attention must remain high because the disease affects approximately 55,000 women in Italy each year, one in eight during their lifetime, confirming itself as the most frequent cancer in the female sex. This is why the international campaign against breast cancer is back this year, starting in Italy with the AIRC Foundation and The Estée Lauder Companies Italia, which on the evening of September 30 illuminated the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in pink. In Milan. Campaign against cancer, then continue to illuminate hundreds of municipal buildings and monuments throughout the country thanks to the collaboration between AIRC and ANCI, the National Association of Italian Municipalities.
Breast cancer, new hope for research: a blood sample to intercept bone metastases early
Breast cancer, 16,000 fewer diagnoses due to confinement
The AIRC Foundation for Cancer Research, together with its researchers, once again draws attention to the urgency of finding new treatments for those who have to deal with the most aggressive forms, such as the triple negative type, which affects mostly in young age, and metastatic breast cancer, which affects about 37,000 women in our country alone. It is a very difficult challenge, which the AIRC wanted to represent visually with an incomplete pink ribbon, which requires everyone’s commitment to be fully colored. It requires the commitment of women, who must undergo the screening and control examinations recommended for early diagnosis; it requires the commitment of researchers, to work on the development of new therapies; and requires the commitment of supporters who, through their donations, allow research to never stop.
A call that becomes even more urgent now that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on testing programs are coming to light. Some researchers have estimated that in 2020 in Italy, in the three-month lockdown alone, around 10,000 patients may not have received an early diagnosis of breast cancer, a number that rises to 16,000 when including the next trimester 2. A delay that must be filled as soon as possible, to reduce the number of diagnoses at more advanced stages of the disease.
We now have more and more early diagnoses, accurate and accessible to a greater number of women, more targeted, effective and tolerable treatments. However, breast cancer remains one of the greatest challenges for research, which seeks answers for women who do not respond to available therapies.
Carolina Marconi and the fight against cancer: “I was trying to get pregnant, so I discovered the tumor”
The Nastro Rosa Airc 2021 campaigns
In October, the AIRC disseminates information and advice on the nastrorosa.it website, on social networks with the hashtag #nastrorosaairc, through Fundamental magazine and thanks to the collaboration of the campaign partners. You can log into the same site to get all the information on how to donate.
On this occasion, he also returns TITS UP! Stories of women battling breast cancer, podcast series born from the collaboration between the AIRC Foundation and Storielibere.fm, which tells about women who have faced or are facing breast cancer on their skin and who have decided to talk about themselves even in the darkest moments, the everything “torso up”, as the title of the podcast says, encouragement and a wish for good luck, as in the famous series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. Boobs up! is conceived and narrated by Samanta Chiodini and can count on the contribution of the AIRC researcher Lucia Del Mastro, coordinator of the breast unit of the Policlinico San Martino of Genoa. It is available on the link storielibere.fm/tits-up-airc/ and on all the main listening platforms.