In 2022, in Italy, 390,700 new cancer diagnoses are estimated (in 2020 there were 376,600), 205,000 in men and 185,700 in women. In two years, the increase was 14,100 cases. The most frequently diagnosed, in 2022, is breast cancer (55,700 cases, +0.5% compared to 2020), followed by colorectal cancer (48,100, +1.5% in men and +1.6% in women), lung cancer (43,900, +1.6% in men and +3.6% in women), prostate cancer (40,500, +1.5%) and bladder cancer (29,200, +1.7% in men and +1.0% in women). In 2020, the pandemic led to a decrease in new diagnoses, which was in part linked to the interruption of cancer screening and the slowdown in diagnostic activities, but today we are witnessing a resumption of cancer cases as in other European countries. This recovery is likely to worsen, if there is no curb on incorrect lifestyles: 33% of adults are overweight and 10% obese, 24% smoke and sedentary people increased from 23% in 2008 to 31% in 2021. On the other hand, the resumption of screening programs should be read positively, as in 2021 returned to pre-pandemic levels: mammography, in particular, reaches coverage of 46%; the colorectal reaches coverage of 30%, and the cervix of 35%. The data emerge from the official census, now in its twelfth edition, which describes the aspects related to the diagnosis and therapy of neoplasms collected in the volume "The numbers of cancer in Italy 2022".
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