New cancer survival record in Catalonia

BarcelonaThere are two specific figures which illustrate how the survival rate of cancer patients in Catalonia has rocketed over the last two decades. In the past up to 20 per cent of all Catalan patients who had surgery to treat an esophageal cancer would die, but nowadays only 2 per cent do. Additionally, only a decade ago most cases of myeloid leukemia were terminal, whereas today 94 per cent of patients survive thanks to imatinib, a new medication.

All in all, Catalonia’s cancer survival rate is one of the highest in the world at present. Last Thursday Catalonia’s Oncology Institute (ICO) —the institution that handles about half of all cancer patients in Catalonia— published data showing that 60 per cent of cancer patients go on to live for five years after the diagnostic. Ten years ago the rate was 45 per cent. At present, the survival rate in the US is nearly 65 per cent —although the figure is based on private hospitals that specialise in cancer patients— while in Europe it stands at 55 per cent. “Ours are real data” which include every patient diagnosed in the Catalan network of public hospitals, said Josep Ramon Germà, ICO’s head of research, during a symposium held in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the institution.

The reasons for the improvement

The increase in the survival rate —over one point per year— is the result of a combination of factors, which includes the unseen work of researchers and healthcare professionals, as well as chemotherapy that is less toxic, advances in surgical procedures, more fine-tuned radiotherapy and, above all, a new generation of drugs for treating liquid cancers. Progress has been particularly remarkable with hematologic cancers, although Germà —together with Josep Maria Vilà, the president of ICO— admitted that there is still a group of tumours where progress is slow: lung, esophageal and pancreatic cancers, all of which are related to smoking. Germà described it in a very graphic way: “if the tobacco plant were to go away tomorrow, 27 per cent of all cancers would go away with it”.

A hopeful future

The truth is that, for instance, improving the survival rate of breast cancer patients —currently at 94 per cent— will be difficult. That is why oncologists emphasise prevention and early diagnosis as the two basic tools to achieve this objective, and they also stress that personalised medicine and immunotherapy offer new hope. Increased life expectancy, coupled with the quality of life enjoyed by cancer patients, suggests that in a decade survival rate five years on might rise to 70 per cent, according to ICO, an institution which diagnoses nearly 40 new cancer cases per day in Catalonia, with 900 outpatient appointments, with 350 chemo and 470 radiotherapy sessions. At present, ICO is conducting nearly 350 clinical trials involving a thousand patients and a thousand staff.

In recent years, cancer has become the main cause of mortality in Catalonia, ahead of heart disease. Nearly 17,300 people died of cancer in 2013, which represented 28,8 per cent of all deaths in the country. Having said that, over 40,000 cases were diagnosed and, therefore, it must be noted that a cancer diagnostic does not equate a certain death by any measure. As the population ages, these figures are likely to rise, but sustained scientific advances mean that we can be hopeful about the future. Perhaps the best way to face cancer is to know that it must be fought, but it can be defeated.