Cancer and colon rectum, ‘Lifeline’ prevention campaign makes a stop in Milan

Raising awareness and informing more and more about the importance of colorectal cancer prevention and screening is the goal of the ‘Lifeline’ campaign promoted by Ethicon, part of Johnson & Johnson Medtech, which today made a stop at the Irccs hospital San Raffaele di Segrate (Mi), with an installation that reproduces a colon in an ‘inflatable’ format about 12 meters in size, set up in the main square of the hospital. Giulia Martina Cavestro, gastroenterologist at San Raffaele, proposed the Premm5 online test to the people concerned for the evaluation of any genetically determined risk of developing a tumor pathology due to the presence of a pathogenetic variant (mutation) of DNA. “The early diagnosis of colorectal cancer is very important and improves survival. It is achieved thanks to the screening that has been active in Italy for several years and every fifty-year-old receives an invitation to test to discover any traces of occult blood in the faeces”, explains Cavestro. “It is also necessary to pay attention to the familiarity of the pathology. In the presence of first degree relatives suffering from colorectal cancer, screening must be anticipated”. In fact, about 25% of colon cancer cases have a family history, 6 to 10% may be associated with an inherited pathogenetic variant, but today we know that there are other potential risk factors that favor the onset of cancer: obesity , improper diet, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking. Colon cancer ranks second in Italy in the male and female population for incidence and mortality. In 2020 alone, approximately 43,700 new diagnoses were estimated and in the same year, according to Istat data, there were over 21,000 deaths. “Ethicon has always been committed to taking care of people at risk. The ‘Lifeline’ campaign was launched a year ago with the aim of supporting the health system in bringing patients back to pay attention to their health, in particular to a diagnosis early and timely colorectal cancer, “explains Simona Braghi, country medical & education director of Johnson & Johnson MedTech. “The campaign – continues Braghi – has crossed all of Italy and is, in our opinion, very important because it wants to increase attention towards an oncological pathology of which much of the natural history is known. It is therefore essential to be able to identify early prompt what may be the initial stages of the disease to avoid reaching advanced situations that could lead to greater treatment difficulties “, he concludes.