The fight against antimicrobial resistance is significant for cancer prevention and treatment

The fight against Antimicrobial Resistance is significant for cancer prevention and treatment Why pay attention to antimicrobial resistance (AMR)? Why pay attention to AMR in relation to cancer prevention, control and treatment? Antimicrobial agents like antibiotics are essential to treat some hu- man and animal diseases. Microbes, such as bacteria, can develop resistance to antimicrobials meaning that a drug such as an anti- biotic is no longer effective in treating the infection. The develop- ment of resistance is caused by the incorrect use of these drugs, for example, using antibiotics (which help to treat bacteria) for viral infections like flu, or as a growth promoter in agriculture. Because of this the world is running out of effective antibiotics to treat infectious diseases, and unless appropriate action is taken, decades of progress in health and medicine risk being undone. In May 2015, the World Health Assembly (WHA) endorsed a global action plan on AMR and urged all Member States to develop na- tional action plans. WHA72 (May 2019) called for an accelerated implementation. Cancer prevention and control WHO’s approach to cancer has four pillars: prevention, ear- ly detection, diagnosis and treatment, as well as palliative care. WHO/Europe supports countries in the development, implementa- tion and evaluation of national cancer prevention and control pro- grammes. Cancer treatment Antibiotics are essential for treating cancer patients. However, there is a dilemma: On the one hand we must reduce the use of antibiot- ics, and on the other we cannot take it from patients who need treat- ment. Not all countries have equal access to infection treatment and to antibiotics. WHO/Europe assists Member States to improve access to quality, and affordable essential medicines and their responsible use. Annual public awareness campaigns World Cancer Day Each year on 4 February, activities are organized around the world to raise awareness and promote action to ease the burden of can- cer. WHO supports the efforts of the International Union Against Cancer in organizing these activities and bringing prevention strate- gies to the attention of policy-makers throughout the world. World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) WAAW aims to increase awareness of global AMR and to encourage best practices among the public, health workers and policy-makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. The week takes place every November. Each year 4.6 million people become newly affected by cancer in the WHO European Region while 12.9 million, in total, live with can- cer, including 114 000 children and adolescents. 47% of these peo- ple with cancer will die because of it, with a large variation between countries. Many cancers can be prevented by avoiding exposure to common risk factors, such as tobacco smoke. In addition, a significant pro- portion of cancers can be cured by surgery, radiotherapy or chemo- therapy, especially if they are detected early. Bacterial infection is one of the most common complications among cancer patients. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy kill cancer cells, but also cells that are part of our defense mechanism against infections. This means these patients often develop infections that require treatment with antibiotics What are WHO/Europe’s priorities regarding AMR and cancer prevention, control and treatment? How can both issues benefit from each other? AMR will potentially have devastating consequences for cancer treatment: Antibiotic resistant bacteria will set cancer treatment back for decades, while the incidence of cancer cases will continue to rise in the years to come. Regarding cancer diagnosis there is large concern that prostatic biopsy can be very dangerous if a patient is carrying antibiotic resistant bacteria in the intestine. One in ten patients having a prostatic biopsy taken will experience severe infection. Without efficient preventive antibiotic treatment, the risk of infection after prostatic biopsy is around 50%. The growing cancer burden, in combination with increasing AMR, is a threat to every society in every country in the world and is thus a true wake-up call. © World Health Organization 2020. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO license Helge Øvreness from Norway was 21 years old when he fell ill with leukemia (blood cancer). In the course of five years he received several chemotherapies, a stem cell transplant and a lung transplant. Immediately after diagnosis, chemotherapy killed Helge’s cancer cells. To defin- itively overcome the blood cancer, his own blood-forming (hematopoietic) cells were destroyed, and he received stem cells from his sister. Helge’s immune sys- tem, which normally averts infections, was no longer intact during these treat- ments. He had to be given antibiotics and spent some time in isolation. But that wasn’t all. The new immune system with his sister’s cells started to attack his lungs, with one infection followed by another. This made a lung trans- plant necessary. And again, he was massively dependent on antibiotics! Thanks to modern cancer treatment Helge lives today. But without antibiotics he could never have received the treatment that saved his life. “If antibiotics are no longer effective, everything – even small infections – will be very serious. Especially for people like me, small health problems can quickly become big. If I don’t get antibiotics, I will soon be very ill. Then I can’t survive.” The fight against AMR requires everyone’s commitment. Support us by giving this important issue the high priority it deserves, by taking the appropriate decisions and implementing effective measures – and help prevent cancer and keep it treatable! Achievements so far Thanks to antibiotics, Helge runs a 10 km race again today Document number: WHO/EURO:2020-1628-41379-56382 Resources and contact www.euro.who.int ► Health topics ► Antimicrobial resistance www.euro.who.int ► Health topics ► Cancer WHO Regional Office for Europe UN City, Marmorvej 51 DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø (Denmark) Tel.: +45 45 33 70 00 euantimicrobials@who.int Annual public awareness campaigns In June 2017 the Norwegian Cancer Society launched a global social media campaign together with the Norwegian government. This campaign was a call to action and the goal was: Limit the use of existing antibiotics! The campaign aimed to attract the attention of cancer organizations globally, and was followed by the exhibi- tion, “Hanging by a thread”, launched on World Cancer Day 2018. In November 2018 the exhibition was donated to WHO/Europe in Copenhagen and became part of WAAW 2018; and during WAAW 2019, it was displayed in Brussels and Stockholm. More exhibi- tions in various cities are planned. © WHO/EURO © WHO/EURO