Care and treatments
The consumption of cancer drugs has grown across the country in recent years, reaching 10.3 daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day in 2021. The use of antineoplastic drugs, also known as chemotherapy drugs, has followed a similar trend. Indeed, consumption reached 17.4 daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day in 2021. As of 2020, Lombardy was also the Italian region with the highest expenditure on innovative cancer drugs, with almost 200 million euros.Risk factors and mortality
Lifestyle choices, and other elements that are not necessarily under the control of the individual, contribute to the risk of getting cancer. Smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity are among these. In 2019, the number of deaths from cancer attributable to smoking was almost 43.5 thousand. Human papillomavirus infection is also a relevant risk factor, and cervical cancer is the type of cancer with the highest incidence rate of HPV-related cancers in Italy in 2020.
