P.more than 70 thousand citizens have signed the petition to ask for one law on the right to be forgotten oncology. The initiative is promoted by Aiom Foundation with the social campaign “I am not my tumor” and the portal Leggeallobliotumori.org for the collection of signatures (an information guide can be downloaded). The goal is to reach 100 thousand adhesions to be delivered to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers with the request that Italy comply with the protection of the rights of former cancer patients guaranteed for example in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland and Portugal.
Today, those who recover from the disease in Italy instead risk suffer discrimination in the stipulation of insurance and mortgages, when applying for the adoption of a child, when selecting for a job and career. In practice, declaring the previous illness penalizes.
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“Many do not report to associations because they already feel lucky to have survived cancer” reports Antonella Campana, vice president of the Foundation. Only with knowledge can the stigma be overcome: “With the new therapeutic pathways, many tumors are cured and others can become chronic,” remembers Giordano Beretta, head of medical oncology at Humanitas Gavazzeni in Bergamo, president of the Foundation. “36 million in Italy live with a diagnosis of cancer and about 1 million of them are cured. With the law they would no longer be considered patients 5 years after the end of treatment if the neoplasm arose in childhood and 10 years if one became ill as an adult “.
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