EOS Local News & Events

SPANISH Medical Oncology Society (SEOM) representatives have warned that lung cancer in western women is reaching 'epidemic proportions', rising by around 4% to 5% annually with 28,000 cases in both sexes diagnosed in Spain every year.

The SEOM along with the Spanish Lung Cancer Group (GECP) and the Lung Cancer in Women Research Association (ICAPEM) have called for more scientific efforts to focus on this type of tumour, given that its research often takes a back seat to that of other variations of cancer.

Experts from all three organisations say some of the problem is the stigma surrounding lung cancer – patients feel guilty and embarrassed when diagnosed and believe society in general will say it is their own fault for being smokers.

Although primary lung cancer can in fact occur in non-smokers or very occasional smokers, it is difficult for researchers and charities to drum up any support, either from governments or donations from the general public, allowing them to investigate the disease and provide a back-up network to patients and their loved ones, since society's attitude overall towards lung-cancer sufferers is that 'they only have themselves to blame'.

Dr Javier de Castro, head of Medical Oncology at Madrid's La Paz University Hospital and chairman of ICAPEM, highlighted this problem at a recent conference.

He also says that the anti-smoking laws and campaigns brought into effect in the 21st century have helped halt the epidemic in lung cancer in men, but not in women.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PANASONIC, Mitsubishi Electric and La Tagliatella are the latest three firms to move their head offices out of Catalunya in light of the ongoing independence issue.

With exiled former regional president Carles Puigdemont hoping for a 'virtual' investiture as leader from Brussels and his former deputy Oriol Junqueras seeking to do so from prison – both of whom have been told this is not on the cards – the continuing political uncertainty in Catalunya and the pro-secession parties gaining a majority in an election forced by the national government means major corporations are playing it cautiously.

Since the disputed independence referendum on October 1, over 3,200 firms have moved their head offices out of the region.

This effectively means, in most cases, simply a change of address and domiciling their activities on paper at another branch elsewhere in the country, so it has not caused any closures or redundancies in Catalunya.

But it does mean Catalunya no longer benefits from their taxes, which are paid to their new regions and would be paid to the Spanish government in the unlikely event of the north-eastern region ever becoming an independent country.

Japanese multi-national Panasonic, previously based in Cornellà de Llobregat (Barcelona province) has now moved to Alcobendas in the Greater Madrid region, to the east of the capital.

The company employs around 150 people in Spain and handles business relations in the country for the Asian giant.

Mitsubishi Electric, a world leader in the electronics sector, was originally in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona province), but is now in San Fernando de Henares, also in the Greater Madrid region.

Pastificio Restaurantes – a holding of the AmRest Group and owner of the brand La Tagliatella – has moved from Barcelona to the 'celebrity city' of Pozuelo de Alarcón, a wealthy commuter town just outside Madrid.

Hotel group Gargallo, which has branches in Catalunya and Aragón including the Hotel Suizo in Barcelona and the Hotel Colonial and Hotel Barcino chains, was previously based on the city-centre Vía Laietana in Barcelona, but has now shifted out of the region.