Turin was the third stop along the institutional presentation tour of the volume "Cancer numbers in Italy 2018". The publication is the result of the initial collaboration between the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) and the Italian Association of Cancer Registries (AIRTum) to which are added, in this eighth edition, the AIOM Foundation and the surveillance system "Healthcare Progress in Italy" (PASSI).
The volume shows the incidence data of tumors (over 373 thousand new cases of malignant tumors in 2018), mortality rates; (over 178 thousand deaths in 2015), survival 5 years after diagnosis and prevalence data.
The incidence of tumors is decreasing in both genders: tumors of the stomach and colorectal tumors decrease (in large part due to the oncological screening that allows to interrupt the adenoma-carcinoma sequence).
The decline of lung and prostate cancer in men and of uterine and ovarian cancer in women continues. In both genders the growing trend of pancreatic, melanoma and thyroid tumors goes on. In men, testicular cancer continues to increase and in women, lung cancer and breast cancer increased slightly, mainly in the age group 45-49, to which in some regions screening has been extended.
Regarding the geographical divide, a discrepancy persists; between the incidence recorded in the Northern Regions compared to the Central and South Regions in both men and women.
Temporal trends indicate that even mortality continues to decrease significantly in both sexes as a result of more factors: primary prevention, in particular the fight against smoking, the dissemination of nationally based screening, diagnostic improvements, therapeutic advances (surgical, pharmacological, radiotherapeutic) and the ever increasing broad application of the multidisciplinary management of cancer patients.