Health

Reducing the burden: The economic and social costs of lung cancer in Italy

November 24, 2016

Europe

November 24, 2016

Europe
Aviva Freudmann

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Aviva has nearly 40 years of experience as a journalist, researcher and editor covering a variety of industries, including healthcare, financial services, insurance and risk management, transport, logistics, energy and environmental protection.

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In addition to ranking among Europe's deadliest diseases, cancer is one of its most expensive. In Italy, the economic burdens of all cancers was estimated in 2013 at 16.5bn euros, and lung cancer is believed to be a large part of that overall burden. This report examines the policies that could help reduce the burdens, including the costs of treatment and the value of lost wages and lost productivity of disease sufferers and their carers.

The incidence of lung cancer is rising in Italy, particularly among women. On the other hand Italy, like many of its European neighbours, is improving the ways that it fights lung cancern, both in a clinical sense and through an array of broader policies. By considering a variety of measures to discourage smoking, and by experimenting with innovative approaches to financing new treatments, Italy is starting to formulate plans to reduce the burdens of the disease.

This study, which assesses the burden of the disease and the policies aimed at reducing it, concludes that stronger policies are needed to wage a successful war on lung cancer in Italy.While important advances are being made in benefits coverage, and in financing clinical innovations, some of the basic ways to tackle the disease receive too little attention. These include recognising the disease's true demographics, and strengthening measures to discourage smoking, a major cause of the illness.

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