Afresh – “My second life”
We remind that in 2018 the five-episode series “My Second Life” was shot, the heroines of which were four Irkutsk women who, with the help of doctors from the Regional Cancer Center, defeated breast cancer and completely regained their female attractiveness through plastic surgery. On the TLC channel, this movie was shown to a wide Russian audience, then it went on to win the prestigious Golden Ray award in the nomination for “The best non-broadcast TV news program”. In 2019, “My Second Life” was continued: four more episodes were shot, telling about the victory over cancer won by ordinary Irkutsk residents and oncologists, who helped them.
“There was a desire to transfer the fight against cancer in a little another direction. The point Is that the main problem in oncology is fear,” says Viktor Semenov, director of the film, head of the Irkutsk film studio “Accent”. “Our series is for those who have fear. Our goal is to say that we should not be afraid.”
Indeed, cancer is not a verdict. Doctors never get tired of repeating that cancer is treatable. The main thing is to see specialists in time and identify the disease in the early stages. The head physician of the Regional Cancer Center, MD, professor Victoria Dvornichenko constantly warns about the same thing:
"Now we have a large percentage of neglect of the disease - this is due to the fact that patients come to us too late. They sit and think: I’ll take care of myself, take pills, listen to what they say on TV and everything will be ok. But this is not enough. You have to go for a medical examination,”says Viktoria Dvornichenko. “You need to visit a doctor at least once a year. There are cancer screening technologies that we are relentlessly implementing in the Irkutsk region. These technologies allow us to detect early stages of cancer, when we can still restore patients’ health. Therefore, no need for fear, take care of your body and visit doctors in a timely manner.“
We note that today, in the Irkutsk region, the I and II stages of cancer are detected in 53.4% of patients. In general, cancer detection in the Angara region is 559 cases per 100 thousand people. Meanwhile, the signal indicators set by the federal program “Fight against oncological diseases” require that by 2024 the portion of oncological diseases detected in the early stages should be at least 59%. And this is a task not only for doctors, but for the entire population of the country.