Implicazioni medico legali della terapia oncologica ai fini valutativi in ambito assistenziale e previdenziale

Abstract

Oncological therapies, i.e. the set of heterogeneous methods to counter the growth and spread of cancer, may become themselves the cause of work disability or inability to perform the activities of daily living (ADL). The paper analyzes various therapeutic approaches to neoplastic diseases in order to examine the major side effects related to the genesis of disability in working activities or inability to perform the ADL. Through the description of some cases came to the observation of the medico-legal department of the Italian National Welfare Institute (INPS) in Siena, the paper aims to explain the relationship between cancer treatments and the so called “oncological iatrogenic disability”. The authors develop a critical analysis of the medico-legal requirements that the side effects of the oncological therapies must have to be recognized as “oncological iatrogenic disability”: certainty of the causal link, intensity and frequency, permanency, and uniqueness of the case.