emotional tsunami that drains resources

When you hear that you have lung cancer, the most lethal tumors, makes you “tsunami” emotional which “takes everything you need” as well as resources: half of patients see their income reduced due to illness, with the reduction being around 20% for six in ten, although it can be more than 30%.

“Economic mess it’s clear big“, Bernard Gaspard, president of the Spanish Association of Lung Cancer Patients (AEACaP), emphasized to EFE on the eve of World Lung Cancer Day, which is celebrated every year on November 17.

There are patients who can give that he the state system does not apply, such as travel, dermatological, dietary or rehabilitation procedures, but others have to use personal loans or help from relatives to afford them.

Bernard, who lost his wife due to lung cancerhad to face Psycho-oncological sessions take on their grief and the grief of their children. Each one costs between 80 and 90 euros, although their association provides them for 55 and pays for the first ten.

He also asked vacation to accompany his wife, who wanted to die at home, to accompany her in the last months of her life.

Eighth report on lung cancer in EuropeEconomic effect

lung cancer in Spain” shows that half of patients lose income after diagnosis; six out of ten – 20%, and one out of four – more than 30%. 14.3% find it difficult to live with what they have left.

The main reason is recognition of retirement due to illness, This is followed by inability to work (28.3%).

As a result, 50.9% have to make adjustments to adapt to a new situation, for example, changing plans (32.4%) or limiting leisure activities (31.5%).

Another challenge for the 81.2% of patients experiencing financial hardship is being able to afford certain treatments and care. 57.6% have limited access to psychologists, physiotherapists or nutritionists.

“The first moment diagnosis is like a tsunami because suddenly everything that your life is based on, both professional, family and personal, it all disappears,” Mª Angeles Marin, Leles, tells EFE.

It was for my husband and children”demolition“. “He destroys everything, he takes away everything that was in front of him. “I turned my whole family’s life upside down,” he recalls.

He came to see her in November 2021 during a routine check-up for her asthma, which seemed to have gotten a little worse in recent months. When his pulmonologist opened the X-ray, “there was a large tumor in the upper left lung. That’s when the show started.”

Spectacular, because Leles is also not smokes – 80% of patients smoke or did it – she is a woman – who has a lower incidence – and her father had pulmonary fibrosis, which was expected. “Cancer never even crossed my mind,” he insists.

And there was “lung adenocarcinoma with an EGFR mutation in exon 21,” in stage IV and with metastases to the adrenal glands, two femoral heads and first to the brain, which disappeared after the first three months. treatment.

Need 20 minutes to digest this. He knew little about the disease other than that “it is diagnosed very late and, unfortunately, people die within a few months.” “I thought I wouldn’t live to see Easter. My birthday is in February and I wondered if I would make it,” he admits.

Their resources They are the same despite be on vacation because her husband continued to run the family business and his job is now being done by a close friend of her son who was hired while he was an intern.

He lives in Cadiz, close to the hospital, so he doesn’t spend money on travel, but he sees how other patients his association cares for are going through difficult financial situations.

Leles ends with a loud message: “Cancer is not bad. To get lung cancer, all you need is lungs. Please let’s stop stigmatizing it because smokers don’t get cancer either.”

more than 30,000 cases which are identified annually, 70%, when they are already advanced, also leave their mark on the system: they represent 11% of total cancer treatment costs (2,100 million per year), with average costs per patient of 63,245 euros in early stages and more than 103,000 euros in metastatic stages, according to the Spanish Association Against Cancer.

Reducing this footprint necessarily involves early diagnosis, emphasizes Luis Seijo, Director of the Department of Pulmonology at the University of Navarra Clinic.

In Spain we haven’t finished yet shieldedis in principle recommended for people over 50 who smoke 20 to 30 packs of cigarettes a year or more, although these are criteria that the expert says “need to be improved.”

Seijo is one of the coordinators of Cassandra, a pilot project that has already been launched by 9 public centers in 4 communities, which aims to confirm the viability of these programs in Spanish healthcare.

Alliance Lung Ambition, global collaborative initiative between different organizations to eliminate lung cancer as a cause of death, estimates its cost-effectiveness to be 2,500 per QALY (quality-adjusted life years), when colorectal cancer is 2,154 and breast cancer is 15,000.

“Immunotherapy costs at least 10 times more. But it is approved, and rightly so, for the treatment of late stages. The key is to decide as a society how much we are willing to pay to save a life. We are spending much more so that those suffering from this disease can live a few more months,” he wonders.