An increase in the number of oncological diagnoses is expected in Ukraine in the post-war period, which will be caused by insufficient diagnosis during the war.
This opinion was expressed by the participants of the round table held at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Wednesday and dedicated to the problem of wartime oncology.
“Today, the influence of stress on the onset of cancer has not been proven, but during the war, all chronic diseases, including cancer, are definitely exacerbated. Therefore, we expect an acceleration in the development of cancer. Interruption in treatment and diagnosis leads to the worsening of the situation. The statistics of oncological diseases after our victory, I think, for many will be a big “surprise” in a negative way,” said Kostiantyn Kopchak, the deputy medical director of the Dobrobut network, said.
According to the forecasts of the deputy director for inpatient work of the Kyiv City Clinical Oncology Center, Tamara Hrushynska, the sad statistics on the incidence of oncology will be visible in 1.5 years.
“Some patients did not have the opportunity to receive the necessary medical care during active hostilities, for example, when there was only one family doctor in the whole city or people did not have the opportunity to get to the clinic. I think the sad statistics will appear in a year and a half. We will see that the number of oncological diseases will increase much, unfortunately,” she said.
She noted the number of patients in the Kyiv Oncology Center has not decreased, people traveled from different regions and received help.
For his part, Ivan Klymniuk, the head of the oncology department of the ADONIS clinic, said that almost the entire country had dropped out of the early diagnosis system for at least six months.
“People focused on survival and safety, they did not think about screening and diagnosis. We will see the echoes of the war in the field of oncology a little later, there will be many neglected forms. If earlier the patient could be diagnosed at the first-second stage, which makes it possible to stop the process, then now we will face the fact that cancer will be detected at the third-fourth stage,” he said.
At the same time, he stressed that now all representatives of the oncological service of Ukraine have consolidated and are providing assistance to patients.
The growth of neglected forms of oncological pathologies is also expected by the head of the parliamentary subcommittee on the prevention and control of oncological diseases of the committee of the nation’s health, medical care and medical insurance, Valeriy Zub.
“This is logical, because there were interruptions in treatment, untimely diagnosis and the inability to go to a medical facility. We predict and, unfortunately, we already see: the number of neglected forms of cancer has been growing in most cancer centers even in recent months,” he states.
Zub considers it necessary to reconfigure the work of the oncology service, since it will be necessary to carry out more complicated surgical interventions and apply more complex chemotherapy regimens.
According to him, the working group created in the Ministry of Health will develop proposals for adjusting the development of the oncological service, taking into account the current situation.
“The task is not to return the oncological service to the form in which it was before, but to make it better, in particular making regional oncology centers better,” he said.
