During the first eleven months of the past year, 713 highly complex cancer surgeries were performed
Tomorrow is World Cancer Day. This year its theme is “Closing the Care Gap”
Bellvitge University Hospital is the Catalan hospital performing the most complex cancer surgeries. According to the latest global data available, between January and November 2021 it has carried out 713 operations considered as highly complex cancer surgery, according to the criteria of the Catalan Health Service (CatSalut). That is more than any other health centre in Catalonia.
CatSalut combines seven types of pathologies under the umbrella of highly complex cancer surgery. Specifically, the figures of complex surgeries performed at Bellvitge Hospital during this period were as follows:
- Brain tumours: 187
- Lung cancer: 186
- Liver cancer: 153
- Rectal cancer: 84
- Stomach cancer: 45
- Oesophageal cancer: 29
- Pancreatic cancer: 29
CatSalut organises highly specialised cancer care in Catalonia in such a way that a limited number of centres concentrate surgeries requiring specialised multidisciplinary care and a high degree of expertise. In the case of Bellvitge Hospital, most of complex care surgery is carried out on patients from a more than 2 million inhabitant area, covering the entire southern axis of Catalonia (from the Southern Barcelona Metropolitan Area to the Ebro Area). Bellvitge Hospital is a reference in complex pathology for this zone.
In this regard, Dr Álvaro Arcocha, deputy medical director of the Surgical Process at Bellvitge University Hospital, stresses that, “the more complex a surgery is, the more experience you need to achieve good results. Concentrating the most complex surgery in a few centres makes it easier for those teams to gain a great deal of experience, which eventually turns into good results. These surgeries require coordinated teams that are used to this type of intervention, such as surgeons, anaesthesiologists and specialised nursing professionals”.
Dr Arcocha also points out that, “In certain surgeries, such as oesophageal, pancreatic, lung or rectal surgery, there is a direct relationship between the number of cases performed and the quality of their results. The more such surgeries you perform, the better you perform them. Thus, when performing a fewer number of them, it is harder for a team to gain experience”. For this reason, he concludes, at Bellvitge Hospital “not only do we perform more complex cancer surgeries than in any other hospital, but exactly for that reason, we are able to deliver excellent results”.
Digital transformation of pathological anatomy
Bellvitge University Hospital also plays an advanced role in the field of pathological anatomy, which is the speciality that diagnoses and classifies cancers from tissue samples (biopsies) or cells (cytologies).
In this sense, it is worth highlighting its participation in the DIGIPATICS project of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), which will involve the digitisation of all samples. This will make it possible to share difficult cases with several hospitals in real time, to assess biomarkers more accurately and, ultimately, to generate artificial intelligence algorithms to help pathologists diagnose and classify tumours.
The Oncology Care Functional Units
Oncological activity at Bellvitge Hospital is carried out within the framework of the Functional Oncological Care Units. These organisational structures bring together professionals from Bellvitge University Hospital and the Catalan Institute of Oncology to offer patients comprehensive and efficient oncological care. These mixed units allow the patient to have a single entry point as well as to receive their initial assessment, diagnosis and treatment by interdisciplinary teams specialised in each type of cancer. Moreover, the patient can be visited simultaneously by all the required specialists in one single spot.
World Cancer Day
4th February marks World Cancer Day. This celebration, endorsed by the The Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO), aims to raise awareness of this disease among the world's population, with special emphasis on prevention. This year's edition is presented under the theme “Closing the Care Gap” and aims, above all, to raise awareness of inequity in access to cancer care in the world.