ROMA (ITALPRESS) – About 60,000 women in Italy receive a breast cancer diagnosis this year. But prevention can begin much earlier, with a simple, free gesture and at the reach of all: self-palpation, at the level of knowledge of your body. It is from here that the edition 2026 of LILT for Women – Nastro Rosa, the national campaign of awareness and information of LILT – Lega Italiana per la Lotta contro i Tumori presented this morning by the National President Francesco Schittulli at the Press Office of the Chamber of Deputies at Palazzo Montecitorio. The initiative in pink will accompany the entire month of October, dedicated worldwide to the prevention of breast cancer. At the press conference, moderated by the television journalist Paolo Di Giannantonio, Marcello Gemmato, Secretary of State for Health, Maria Stefania Marino and Elisabetta Gregoraci, Ambassador of the National LILT. Breast cancer remains the most frequent neoplasia among women in Italy: it represents about 30% of all female tumors and a woman out of seven could develop it throughout life. The advances in early diagnosis and therapies have led to the survival rate at five years over 88%, and since 2000 there has been a progressive and constant reduction in mortality. A result that demonstrates the importance of continuing to raise awareness among women about the value of “prevention” and the changing risk factors – surpous and obesity, poor physical activity, nutrition, alcohol and smoke. 40% of cases could be avoided by adopting healthy lifestyles. In his speech, Gemmato recalled that “in 2019 health spending was 114 billion, in 2026 we reached 134 billion. This is certainly symptomatic of a strong investment in health, but together with this we need to invest in primary, secondary and secondary prevention. For this reason, in the last budget law we have entered half a billion euros more in prevention.” “Starting from the knowledge of your body is the first act of prevention, and it is a gesture that belongs to every woman – said Schittulli -. Self-palpation is simple, you can learn and repeat regularly and helps to quickly notice what changes. Inviting them to do ‘the first passed, we want to tell women that prevention begins from each of them and that, thanks to the early diagnosis and increasingly personalized therapies, breast cancer is now increasingly healable. For this reason, LILT continues to apply for uniform screening programs throughout the country, and to make available to women about 400 outpatients and prevention spaces.” “To be at the side of the LILT for the Pink Ribbon once again is a commitment that I feel deeply. My personal history has taught me how important prevention can be and how fundamental it is not to postpone controls. With LILT and with Professor Schittulli I share the will to bring this message to as many women as possible: taking care of yourself is not a gesture of fear, but an act of love towards one’s own life and towards the people who are next to it. I am proud to be able to put my voice at the service of a campaign that can really make a difference,” said Elisabetta Gregoraci. “As a member of the national presidency of LILT, which I honour to be part of, I always thank Professor Schittulli and all the doctors and volunteers who serve Lilt with great sense of responsibility. I feel the need to underline the importance of a common commitment: institutions, health professionals, associations, schools, families and citizens to collaborate so that prevention becomes more and more a daily choice and not an occasional appointment, prevention in my opinion is the most important investment we must makeand for our health”, said Maria Stefania Marino. Present at the press conference also Roberto Pella, Vice-President ANCI, who intervening for a short greeting remembered: “Prevention must become a permanent culture and a concrete and exigible right for every citizen and every citizen, it cannot be a privilege linked to the place where one is born or lives. For this reason the Italian municipalities are and will continue to be alongside LILT: to bring health promotion to the territories, to make more accessible the paths of early diagnosis and assistance, even domicile, to help build a country in which the data on breast cancer can be increasingly reduced”. The claim chosen for the 2026 edition is “The first step”, accompanied by the message “The self-palpation of the breast is the first gesture to know our body. Prevention begins with each of us!” An invitation aimed at all women to recognize themselves as protagonists of their health, starting from the knowledge of their body, and to make this gesture the start of a path of prevention that includes senological visits, clinical-instrumental periodical controls and screening programs. The 2026 campaign received the patronage of ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities) and was realized with the support of the sponsor Yamamay. Like every year, in October, the 105 LILT Associations and the 20 regional coordinations will create a capillary network of initiatives throughout Italy, with senological visits, dissemination meetings with distribution of brochures, information panels, activities in schools and workplaces, as well as social campaigns and listening spaces.
– photos mec/Italpress – (ITALPRESS).
