Death number one: the global cancer epidemic was forgotten behind the coronavirus pandemic

Irina Mishina

Now in the world more than 18 million patients with oncological diagnosis. The number of deaths per year exceeds 9 million people. Against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, cancer statistics turned out to be blurred, but in vain. If emergency measures are not taken now, by 2040 the number of cancer patients may increase to 29.4 million people. This ominous statistics can be reduced only if all countries of the world begin to actively invest in national cancer programs. But for now, the world is investing in covid treatment.

Early cancer diagnosis is the way to salvation

27-year-old Englishwoman Jessica Brady from Hertfordshire fell ill at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the summer of 2020. Without any tests or examination, Jessica was diagnosed with a kidney infection and prescribed antibiotics. When the girl began to complain of increased fatigue and deterioration of health, she was prescribed another medication, including steroids. One of the blood tests showed a high level of D-dimer, which could indicate the development of cancer. The family therapist suggested that Brady needed a gastroscopy. As a result, she turned to a paid clinic, where a British woman was diagnosed with cancer of the lungs, bones, spine and liver of the fourth stage. The woman has died. This was reported by the Daily Mail newspaper.

This story is one of thousands. Similar cases since the beginning of the pandemic have been occurring in many countries around the world. But if in the USA, Japan and European countries with cancer diagnosis everything is more or less normal, in Russia this is a problem.

“According to statistics, the incidence of cancer in Russia is lower than in the US and in many European countries. But if you take these statistics, in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, for example, there is practically no cancer at all. The point is the percentage of detection of cancer. Ours is definitely lower. Diagnosis of oncological diseases in Russia is a “launched” process. In the United States and Japan, cancer is usually detected at stage 1-2, when a sparing operation and remission are possible. We have almost no detection of cancer in the early stages. There is also no database with statistics: how long he lived after treatment, what he died from, how many times a year he underwent examinations, which ones, " - told" NI " candidate of medical sciences, professor of the department of oncology, surgery and palliative medicine of the Federal State Budgetary Institution" Tver State Medical University » Ministry of Health of Russia Maxim Rykov.

In a primitive form, maintaining a register of cancer patients is enshrined in 323-FZ, but in fact the condition of cancer patients is their own business. No one calls them after they are discharged from the hospital, does not monitor their condition, the duration of survival, remission, does not offer to donate blood for tumor markers. And if a person does not remind himself of himself for several years after treatment, he is completely removed from the dispensary record. Automatically.

Saving cancer patients is the business of the patients themselves

“Our register of cancer patients is not very informative. How long cancer patients live, what they die of, all this is very poorly monitored today. Here in Belarus this register is well established, but there is a small country, it is easier to organize it. For the competent maintenance of such a register, constant calls are needed, and for this we need personnel, which, as always, is not enough. - says oncologist Maxim Rykov.

The staff of the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry named after Vasya Perevoshchikov addressed the editorial office of NI with a request to publish statistics related to the treatment of blood cancer and bone marrow donation as a way to cope with this type of cancer. The number of patients continues to grow, and the number of bone marrow donors in our country is now five times less than necessary. The State Duma is at the second reading stage of a bill that includes provisions on the creation of the Federal Register of Bone Marrow Donors. But the hands of the deputies still do not reach him.

“Every year about 28 thousand people fall ill with blood cancer, while in fact 10-12 thousand need bone marrow transplantation. The current number of bone marrow transplants does not match the actual needs. Suffice it to say that during the year our Registry performed only 48 bone marrow transplantations. But such a transplant could save thousands of lives. Given that we are mostly treated by people with stage 4 leukemia, this is very important. I will give only one figure: the survival rate of children after bone marrow transplantation is 80%, ” Anna Andryushkina, general director of the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry , told NI.

According to statistics, every year about half a million Russians are diagnosed with cancer, about 280 thousand of our citizens die because of this disease. Moreover, if a neoplasm is detected at the first or second stage, then it can be cured in about 95% of cases, says Andrey Kaprin, director of the Herzen Moscow Cancer Research Institute.

“In some countries - in Japan, in European countries, for example, the employer monitors the oncological examination, and this is embedded in the culture of the population. In our country, it is difficult to pass such a diagnosis, and the reason is not only the traditional mistrust of state medicine. In our country, the population does not like planned medical examinations, doctors usually treat this quite formally. And the approach to patients is different. In Japan, the United States and European countries, gastero and colonoscopy are humane procedures that are performed under anesthesia. In our country, these words alone cause fear and horror in people , ”says Maxim Rykov, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Oncology, Surgery and Palliative Medicine of the Tver State Medical University of the Russian Ministry of Health.

Killer named glycidol

A sad fact has recently been a sharp jump in oncological diseases of the stomach and intestines. What is the reason? According to doctors, the main source of cancer is bad ecology. But for some reason, everyone forgets that no less dangerous source of cancer is food.

"Look what we're eating? Wonderful vegetables and fruits that look very beautiful, but no one knows where and how they are grown. At the same time, pesticides that help preserve this beauty are substances that are very harmful to the body. A similar story is with preservatives, which today are consumed in large quantities by mankind in food. They also adversely affect our body, ” says Alexander Borisov, an immunologist, researcher at the Research Institute of Medical Problems of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

An increase in the number of cancers has recently been associated with the use of glycidol in food, which accumulates in the thyroid gland and causes the growth of thyroid cancer. In addition, it affects the liver, blood and blood-forming organs, affects the nervous system and provokes the development of Alzheimer's disease. First Deputy Director of the Scientific and Educational Center for Applied Medicine and Food Safety of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov Professor Dmitry Edelev believes that glycidyl ethers are the main danger to human health. “This is a very strong poison. Every third cancer is associated with glycidol,” says Dmitry Edelev.

At the same time, Russia remains almost the only European country that continues to import cheap palm oil, using it in most products. By the way, industrial palm oil, which is supplied to Russia, is prohibited from being supplied to civilized countries. Glycidol, formed as a result of the processing of cheap palm oil, has been recognized as a carcinogen and has been included by the International Society for the Study of Cancer among substances dangerous to humans. And yet, the "palm lobby" of Russia continues to buy it. The result is deplorable: The World Health Organization's Cancer Institute has experimentally determined that 37% of cancers occur in people who consume such products associated with glycidol.

“If we put our country in order tomorrow - we give up high concentrations of glycidyl ethers and glycidol, then our cancer incidence may drop by a third,” Dmitry Edelev believes.

Cancer map of Russia

In Russia, people get cancer differently in different regions. The list of the most common types of cancer in Russians today looks like this.

• mammary cancer;
• uterine cancer;
• lungs' cancer;
• stomach cancer;
• rectal cancer;
• kidney cancer;
• prostate cancer;
• skin cancer;
• thyroid cancer;
• blood cancer.

On the eve of the day of the fight against cancer, doctors released data on the most dangerous regions, where there are more new cancer patients than in other parts of the country. The leaders in the number of cases were the Kaluga and Pskov regions, as well as the Krasnodar Territory. There are over 3,000 cancer patients per 100,000 people there. The lowest rates were noted in Dagestan, Siberia, Chechnya and Yakutia.

According to Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, during the coronavirus pandemic, not a single oncology bed was repurposed, and cancer patients were provided with full assistance. But there are suggestions that the “supermortality” in Russia over the two years of the pandemic has increased not only due to covid (by the way, it exceeded half a million people). Meanwhile, the coronavirus is only one of the factors of the "supermortality" that covered Russia in 2020-2021. According to the official position of the Russian government, voiced back in February by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, mortality in the Russian Federation increased by 17.9% in 2020. However, the share of deaths from coronavirus infection per year of the total increase in excess annual mortality is only 31%. And this leads to the question: why do people die, if not from covid?