2,000 new cancer cases diagnosed every year

Shocking statistics show that every year, 944 men and 964 women are diagnosed with cancer. Of these, 40% male patients and 50% female patients, live for at least five years after they are diagnosed.

The figure of 2,000 new cancer cases every year is roughly equivalent to one case every four hours.

“Caring for cancer patients is not only the duty of healthcare professionals who work within Oncology departments, but it is society’s duty,” President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca said, after visiting patients at Sir Paul Boffa Hospital.

“Cancer patients and their families are at the heart of support services offered at this hospital. It’s not just patients themselves who suffer, but even relatives of the patients.”

Coleiro Preca said it was important for terminal patients to receive the necessary care and attention at all stages. She recalled how a mother was able to continue taking care of her children thanks to the medical attention and support she received from the hospital.

“This support prevented the mother from seeing her children placed in an orphanage,” she said.

Danica Marmara`, director of the newly created Cancer Pathways Directorate, spoke about the directorate’s plan to put patients and families at the centre of the work and to address the social and economic implications of the disease. 

Marmara` said that although cancer patients do not feel the same during and after the disease, their will to live is never diminished.

“Comments like these show that we can never give up on cancer patients, no matter how hopeless it may seem,” she added.

Marmara` said that the directorate had set up a working group, whose aime was to offer information to staff and those who have just been diagnosed with Cancer.

“One of the first things we did was to offer site specific information about the most common Cancer types. We created four booklets that compile information collected from health care professionals, and patient experiences about breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer,” she said.

She added that the books were the first of their kind, and that there were plans to extend the project to a national level, so that the books would be available at Mater Dei Hospital and at Gozo general hospital among others. Marmara` added that the group also aimed to continue its studies into other forms of Cancer, and to translate the books into Maltese as well. “We are collaborating with the Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpreting Studies from the University of Malta, where Professors Joseph Eynaud and Anthony Aquilina, have agreed to do this work on a voluntary basis,” she said.

Addressing the staff of Boffa Hospital and those involved in the directorate’s work, Coleiro Preca praised all the efforts being made at the hospital and asked those present to continue being the “angels” of suffering patients. She urged all staff members to take care of themselves aside from continuing their good work, and to speak up if their needs aren’t met in any way.