From Omceo Rome a brochure on the rights of cancer patients. Mirri: “Dynamic Document”

Born with the aim of 'seeing' radiotherapy from the patient's side as well as the doctor's

ROME – An information brochure, structured IT to be always updated in real time, at the service of cancer patients, their families but also doctors. A document created with the aim of ‘seeing’ radiotherapyfrom the side of the patient as well as the doctor. It is the information text entitled ‘We take care of your rights’, created by the Radiotherapy Commission of the Order of Doctors-Surgeons and Dentists of the province of Rome, coordinated by Dr Maria Alessandra Mirri, director of the Radiotherapy Uoc of ASL Roma 1 and director of the Oncology Department of the ASL Roma 1. “The booklet – explains Dr. Mirri – focuses on the main protection and support tools available to cancer patients: from the right to a disability pension to the law on oblivion , up to a series of economic benefits, permits and leaves, pension benefits and tax benefits that exist but are often not known”.

BROCHURE AVAILABLE ON THE OMCEO ROME WEBSITE

For the moment the brochure can be consulted on the Omceo Roma website in pdf format (https://sway.cloud.microsoft/IoOWVVMn00Foz6Sv?ref=Link), and the electronic version. “This – explains Dr. Mirri – will allow those who carried out this important work to update the text in real time by adding any new useful information for cancer patients and for us doctors. Therefore, it is not a static document but dynamic, ready to be modified, for example, when laws change”. “Our hope – Mirri also states – is that the booklet will also be useful for general practitioners and other specialists, because we too in the Commission during the drafting of the document learned some aspects that we did not know: for example, reductions in the price of public transport passes”.

SUPPORT THERAPY

As regards radiotherapy, when areas containing structures with high radiosensitivity are irradiated, such as that of the head and neck, seat of the organs responsible for swallowing, that of the intestine or that of the pelvis, which house the bladder, the loops intestinal and rectum, it is always very useful if not mandatory to establish ‘supportive therapy’ to prevent the appearance or limit the extent of side effects linked to irradiation. “Many of the products used for ‘supportive therapies’ – underlines the expert – are not included among the drugs passed on by the National Health System: this involves a significant ‘out of pocket’ outlay that not everyone can afford, with the consequent need for temporarily interrupt the course of radiotherapy, when it is now scientifically proven that any interruption of a radiation treatment leads to a loss of local control which also translates into a greater frequency of relapses

ALSO IMPORTANT FOR THOSE AFFECTING CANCER

“This booklet – he then specifies – is important not only for the patient who undergoes radiation treatment but also for all patients suffering from cancer. Yes deals with important aid in support of citizens residing in Lazio suffering from oncological pathologies and on the waiting list for solid organ or marrow transplants: in our information document it is clarified how to access the contributions, as well as how to obtain the other facilities. I am sure that the ‘We take care of your rights’ brochure will be able to guarantee greater equality of access to these benefits, being of great help to cancer patients but also enabling doctors. , especially those in general medicine, to give their patients useful information”. The Omceo Rome Radiotherapy Commission led by Dr. Maria Alessandra Mirri includes Dr. Maurizio Carcaterra, Dr. Antonella Ciabattoni, Dr. Rita Consorti, Professor Francesca De Felice, Dr. Daniela Musio, Professor Umberto Romeo and Dr. Mario Santarelli .