Cancer: patients testify in a film

New oral treatments have revolutionized the management of cancer patients. Their mode of administration makes treatment taken at home possible and limits the number of visits to the hospital for consultations. The benefits for the daily life and quality of life of patients are considerable. An advantage and comfort not without a snag : more or less perfect compliance with the treatment. Indeed, patients find themselves alone at home to manage their medications for several months or even years. Outside the hospital walls, everyone risks doing what they want… and not following the prescription to the letter. For very good reasons.

Let loose in the wild

“Why are we treating ourselves? If we don’t love each other a little, we don’t heal ourselves. Finally, who owns my life? “, asks a sociologist in public health. “I was observant from the start (…), I told myself that if I had a single chance for something positive to happen, it would go through that. It’s really personal-dependent, it depends on each person’s experience, ”says a patient with a rare form of leukemia. “All of a sudden you are let loose in nature. And since, we told you that everything was fine, you go home and you say to yourself: after all I’m fine, the boxes I’m going to put them aside and we’ll see ”, admits S. who suffers from a digestive cancer for several years.

The testimonies follow one another and are not alike in this documentary which wants to break the taboo of non-compliance in oncology. There are as many reasons for poor adherence to oral treatment as there are patients: some can no longer tolerate side effects such as hair loss. For others, the impossibility of considering motherhood is unbearable because “staying alive without a life plan loses all of its interest”.

Faintness

What also emerges from this “52 mn” produced by Novartis Oncology and ten partner associations is the unease of all, caregivers and patients alike, in the face of what is undoubtedly a breakthrough. For the oncologist, “this has completely revolutionized the management of certain diseases (…) making it possible to prolong their survival and their lives, while trying if possible to respect their quality of life”. The paradox is therefore that the best is not necessarily the ideal: the patient can suffer, as one of them confided. “The therapeutic non-compliance is a great suffering. It is important to share it as soon as possible, in order to be able to get out of it, as quickly as possible. From the moment we start to discuss it, we also start to find solutions. This film, which for the first time tackles this subject, suggests several avenues to support these patients who will have to develop in the years to come. Freeing up the voice of both patients and doctors is already a first step.

“Life under prescription” is available on the Novartis France YouTube page and on the sites of partner patient associations.

Partner associations: