Paris (AFP)

The poorest people are the least equipped to fight cancer: they are more likely to have to make advance payments, to have no additional health, to have to move temporarily to get closer to the hospital.

This is highlighted by the 8th report of the Social Observatory of the League against cancer, dedicated to the experience of patients during the "course of care" (suspicion of cancer, announcement of diagnosis, treatments ...), unveiled Wednesday on the occasion of a day organized in Paris by the League on the ten-year track record of this observatory.

"The impoverishment that leads to cancer is a phenomenon that has not disappeared (job loss, helping less obliged to work ...) and it is an additional difficulty for those who do not have a sufficient mattress" to face this course of several years, told AFP Professor Axel Kahn, president of the League.

More than 3 million people live in France today with cancer, according to the Ministry of Health.

The League spends each year 5 million euros for social assistance of 12,000 families.

The experience of the care path is closely linked to the social situation of patients: those with the lowest incomes (less than 1,500 euros per month) combine difficulties, according to the survey of 2,649 people with cancer or in remission , between August 2015 and October 2018.

The poorest people often have to pay fees, especially for diagnostic tests, pending the 100% management of ALD (long-term condition). They are also more likely to move temporarily to get closer to the hospital.

Of those with less than 1,500 euros in revenue, 12% had to make advance payments. For higher incomes, they are only 7% in this case. Similarly, 10% do not have complementary health against 2% among those who have more than 1,500 euros.

- "On the straw" -

"The 3 weeks of hospitalization, and especially the 18 euros daily, put me on straw," says a patient in this report.

Communication with carers is also less good: 15% did not have a satisfactory answer to their questions at the time of the announcement against 8% among the better-off. The exchanges with the carers on the post-cancer are also less frequent (53% against 66%).

In addition, 31% of the participants with the lowest monthly incomes abandoned some tedious administrative procedures, giving up some of their rights.

Overall, on the management of cancer, there has certainly been progress in recent years (decrease of some dependent, psychological support for family and caregivers ...). Yet the application in practice of the right to be forgotten which gives the possibility of obtaining a bank loan once cured still sins. So much so that the League has a special service to help people who have been denied, says Professor Kahn.

There is still much to be done, such as "providing support for cancer-related dentures and natural hair wigs, or revising the criteria for granting compensated caregiver leave, so that people who are helping a patient with cancer are cancer can access it, "he says.

The League finances for its part for 10 million euros of supportive care (adapted sport, socioeshétique, psychology, speech group, sophrology ...) for 40,000 people during and after cancer, says Professor Axel Kahn.

At the national level, this care, which will concern in the future 150,000 to 200,000 people each year, require according to him a financing "realistic" and "undoubtedly broader" than the envelope announced by the government for this type of benefits .

In the 2020 budget of "Safely" is planned an envelope of 10 million euros for a reimbursed package of care for the accompaniment of patients after cancer, including a psychological assessment, nutritional and physical activity.

© 2019 AFP