Italy tops Europe in curing cancer

(ANSA) - Rome, October 23 - Italy tops the list of European countries in terms of curing cancer, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) said Friday.
    The survival rate has grown 17% for men and 10% for women over the past 17 years, putting Italy at the top in Europe, AIOM said on the opening day of its 17th national congress, with 3,000 in attendance.
    Colon cancer gets cured in 60.8% of cases in Italy compared to a European average of 57%, while 85.5% of breast cancer patients went into remission compared to a European average of 81.8% and 88.6% of prostate cancer sufferers made a full recovery, compared to a European average of 83.4%.
    Immuno-oncology, or medicine that uses the body's immune system to fight cancer, has shown to significantly improve long-term survival rates in melanoma patients and is showing good results in combating other potentially fatal cancers such as lung and kidney cancer.
    AIOM President Carmine Pinto said that a majority of Italians are unaware of these encouraging statistics.
    Forty-one percent think effective therapies don't exist, while 54% still think that cancer is an incurable disease, and 72% have never read anything about immuno-oncology, he said.