Almost 39% of cancer patients are of working age, which in absolute numbers means that more than 110,000 working people each year (and their families) face one of life’s most serious blows. Does cancer have consequences in your career? 28% of patients have lost or been forced to leave their jobs. Cancer is the disease that has the highest prevalence of job loss, as the risk of being unemployed is 34% higher in the case of survivors. In Spain there are more than 2.2 million people who have been diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
These are some of the data provided yesterday by the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) in an event attended by Queen Letícia and the Vice-President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz. Letícia advocated for the employment of patients and urged them to “not lose sight” of the fact that they are “vulnerable people”, so it is “important” that they have an “environment that supports them”.
The event exposed the fear, anxiety and uncertainty of these workers, who see their life and work careers “skewed”, as well as that of family caregivers.
If facing the disease is hard, the economic problem it entails aggravates it even more. The reduction of 25% of the payroll in the case of temporary disabilities, together with the long period of these due to the disease, means that many patients can find themselves in an economically vulnerable situation. Cancer causes an economic cost in 41% of families of more than 10,000 euros during the illness. This can put many families in a position of risk of social exclusion, pointed out Ramón Reyes, president of the AECC.
“It is in our hands to put in place all possible measures so that people with cancer who want to can more easily rejoin the workplace and remove possible obstacles, such as stigmatization or discrimination. We make sure that people with cancer don’t have to worry about work, in addition to the disease,” said Reyes.
The increase in cancer incidence rates, on the one hand, and survival rates, on the other, pose another challenge, according to the AECC: meeting the needs of cancer survivors, including the loss from work and the increasingly complicated reintegration into work, as a result of the pain, concentration or mobility difficulties and fatigue. The long periods of inactivity are an inconvenience for resuming the work routine.
Cancer is the most important socio-health problem in the world. It is estimated that, worldwide, one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer in their lifetime. According to the WHO, more than 35 million new cases are expected in the world in 2050, 77% more than the 20 million cases that were estimated for 2022. According to the Cancer Observatory, in 2030 in Spain there will be 330,000 new cases, a diagnosis every 1.8 minutes. The causes of this growth are ageing, the increase in the population, in addition to the incidence of factors such as tobacco consumption, alcohol, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
