Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – "In the past, 30% of women underwent chemotherapy that unfortunately proved unnecessary. Today, however, thanks to genomic testing, the number of unnecessary chemotherapy treatments has been drastically reduced." This is because, "once the test is performed, the pathologist determines whether or not treatment is necessary.
"In our opinion, it is essential to include these tests in the essential levels of care (LEA)," said Rosanna D'Antona, president of Europa Donna Italia, speaking at the press conference 'Breast cancer, the first two years of activity of the National Observatory on genomic testing', promoted by Abbott in Milan.
The president describes the awareness-raising process that the movement she represents has implemented to raise patients' awareness of the usefulness of genomic testing.
"The first phase was informational: we updated all the associations that are part of Europa Donna on the benefits of a test like this," she explains. "We worked alongside clinicians and scientific societies to reach the goal of the €20 million Fund," established by the 2020-2021 Budget Law (Law 178/2020) to guarantee reimbursement for genomic testing for patients with early-stage, hormone-responsive, and HER2-negative breast cancer throughout Italy.
“Subsequently,” he adds, “we monitored the regions most in difficulty, those that were unable to utilize the resources, finding that the reasons were often bureaucratic in nature.”
The president then concludes by focusing again on the importance of including the test in the LEA: "This way, there will no longer be any debate about the remaining availability of funds, and all women will be able to access the test much more easily."
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