For cancer patients therapy in tumor centers

AOK Report: Cancer patients should be treated in special centers

06/09/2013

According to the oncology report 2013 of the health insurance AOK, the therapy of many cancer patients may not be optimal. Many sufferers are treated in hospitals instead of specialist clinics. The report comes to the conclusion that a therapy in a certified tumor center, however, can significantly increase the chances of recovery.

Cancer patients receive the best possible treatment in certified tumor centers
As the AOK Rheinland / Hamburg states in their oncology report 2013, many cancer patients are not treated in certified tumor centers, although doctors there have the greatest experience with the disease. According to the health insurance fund, most of the patients (just under 81 percent) in North Rhine-Westphalia were treated in special clinics in 2011 only in breast cancer. For all other cancers, the proportion was much lower. Thus, in colon cancer, only one-third received treatment in a tumor center. In lung and prostate cancer, it was only about one-fifth. „Cancers must be treated in specialized and certified centers“, says Günter Wältermann, CEO of AOK Rheinland / Hamburg. „Currently, the proportion of patients treated in certified centers is still far too low for many cancers. There they can be treated best and most successfully.“

The example of certified breast centers shows the importance of treatment in special facilities. There, according to the AOK, the best conditions for „High level of competence, extensive experience in surgery and up-to-date knowledge of drug treatment, which is becoming increasingly important alongside surgery“. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Nitz, chief physician of the Brustzentrum Niederrhein explains: „Breast center care means that breast cancer mortality can be reduced. "Despite the positive development, the range of tasks and available skills in breast centers should be further developed. „In particular, the quality of care must be further increased in women with metastatic breast cancer“, Nitz continues. It also lacks so far to a uniform certification by independent experts of the tumor centers and on outpatient treatment offers. „This certification of the centers must follow uniform standards“, calls also Matthias Mohrmann, member of the board of the AOK.

Cancer patients suffer from enormous mental stress
„A cornerstone in the treatment of oncological patients is also the psycho-oncological care“, explains Nitz. „It has to be offered even wider. A cancer is a special psychological burden for the sick as well as for relatives and friends.“

The oncology report of the AOK also examined the effects of cancer in the workplace. This mainly affects women who develop breast cancer as they often become ill at a young age. Men usually suffer from colon, prostate and skin cancer when diagnosed during their professional life. „Cancers in professional life make new demands on rehabilitation“, so Wältermann. It has been shown that employees retire ten times more often after rehabilitation as a result of cancer than after other illnesses.

Another result of the study concerns the mortality from cancer. „The general trend of increasing cancer incidence in the population with declining mortality rates is confirmed“ it says in the report. 50 percent of AOK survivors who did not survive a cancer died in hospitals and only about seven percent in hospices. (Ag)