“It is not acceptable. Public health is discriminating against the elderly, exercising a health ageism by rejecting the elderly in cancer screenings, when precisely the chances of having cancer increase with age because it is a degenerative disease.

Mercedes Carreras, a nurse and former deputy general director of Care Development and Security at the Galician Health Service, was so forceful, who this week attended the Congress of Deputies together with other cancer experts to present a document that includes the different initiatives which, according to the multidisciplinary committee of experts (OnTarget), should be prioritized in Spain to improve the approach to cancer.

Carreras recalled that the majority of deaths from cancer occur after the age of 70, and, despite this, this population group is not included in current screenings. At this time, breast and colon cancer screenings are carried out on the population between 50 and 69 years of age. “It is the greatest example of dehumanization of the system,” he said.

Updating of the Spanish Strategy against Cancer, equitable and agile access to innovative medicines, the real implementation of personalized precision medicine and the humanization of the approach to cancer are the four essential areas of action, according to OnTarget experts, to improve the approach to cancer in Spain. According to data from Redecan, the number of cancers diagnosed in 2023 will rise to 279,260, a figure that will rise and that in 2040 will affect 340,000 new people.

Jesús García Foncillas, oncologist and vice president of the Foundation for Excellence and Quality in Oncology, focused on the need to make precision medicine a reality, including molecular diagnosis and the prescription of biomarkers in the portfolio of the health system, in addition to of improvements such as the digital medical record, but “a strategy accompanied by financing is needed”.

Foncillas asked that the incorporation of innovation medicines approved by Europe be speeded up. In Spain, he pointed out, there are 469 days of delay (411 two years ago), a delay that he considers inexplicable. “The drug review processes from the Interterritorial Council and the Pharmacy commission of the communities and hospitals must be reviewed,” he said before an audience made up mostly of deputies from the Health commission.