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Cancer World Newsletter - Spotlight on Promoting new ways to control cachexia |
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New knowledge about cachexia shows there is much that can be done to prevent or ameliorate
this distressing wasting condition in patients with advanced cancer. This Spotlight article looks
at efforts to spread best practice about checking for signs of risk and taking effective action in
time.
What do you think?
- Would you welcome more guidance in managing cachexia?
- What can be done to help change clinical practice to ensure patients at risk are identified
before the condition becomes untreatable?
You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.
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Cancer World Newsletter - Patient Voice, Stigma: breaking the vicious circle |
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Stigma is a worldwide problem in cancer, which isolates patients and hampers efforts to promote
prevention and early detection. This Patient Voice article hears from those involved in challenging
stigma, about how patients, families and local organisations have welcomed the opportunity to
speak out, and the impact this can have on the way people see cancer and how they protect
themselves and behave towards others.
What do you think?
- Would people be more likely to keep an eye out for symptoms and take early action if there
were less fear and stigma attached to being diagnosed with cancer?
- Would cancer control efforts benefit from paying more attention to challenging stigma and
misconceptions?
You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.
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First prize in prestigious cancer journalism award shared by British and American journalists |
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Milan, Italy – 22 July, 2013 – Tiffany O’Callaghan, Opinion Editor with the UK’s New Scientist magazine and US-based Joanne Silberner, a freelance multimedia reporter, are the joint winners of the European School of Oncology’s (ESO) Best Cancer Reporter Award for 2013. The Award, established by ESO in 2006, aims to encourage high-quality media coverage on cancer and to recognise journalists who have a commitment to enlightening the public about important issues surrounding the disease.
O’Callaghan’s work highlighted the uncertainty often involved in making treatment decisions in cancer, and the challenges this poses for doctors committed to acting in the best interests of their patients. Silberner was recognised for her six-part series for the BBC/PRI/WGBH radio programme The World, which focused on the growing crisis of cancer in developing countries and highlighted the neglect that surrounds this issue and the need for urgent action.
The winners of the 2013 Best Cancer Reporter Award will each receive a prize of €5000, and an example of their work will be reprinted in ESO’s magazine Cancer World.
On hearing that she had won the Award, Tiffany O’Callaghan said: “I am thrilled and honoured to have been selected for this award. New Scientist has a strong tradition of reporting on evidence based medicine, and at times that means portraying nuance and uncertainty, which patients given very early stage cancer diagnoses such as DCIS often face.”
Responding to news about the Award, Joanne Silberner said: “I am deeply honored to have won this award, and to have been able to help call attention to the plight of people with cancer worldwide. I thank the patients, families and health professionals in Uganda, India and Haiti who shared their stories. And I'm grateful to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for recognizing cancer as a true global crisis, and to the radio program "The World" and my wonderful editor David Baron for support.”
The runners-up prize was also shared between German freelancers Christiane Hawranek and Marco Maurer and Spanish journalist Ainhoa Iriberri, who writes for Revista Salud. They will share a prize of €5000 and have an example of their work published in Cancer World magazine.
Christiane Hawranek and Marco Maurer spent three months investigating a story, published in Die Zeit, about “patient traffickers” – German agencies or individuals that exploit patients’ and families’ desperation and charge extortionate fees to find places for foreign patients in German clinics. They said: “This prize encourages us to go on, to keep on digging, and it reminds us never to give up – even when investigations seem to be impossible at some point. It is worth the effort, although this is not always easy as a freelance journalist. We hope that our reports make a difference for the foreign patients. We would like to thank the European School of Oncology for this prize and are grateful for the support and contributions to our work we got from Die Zeit and the Bayerischer Rundfunk”.
Ainhoa Iriberri tackled the sensitive issue of cancer in pregnant women – a topic rarely covered by the media, but important because of public misconceptions about the issue. She commented: “I'm so happy for receiving this award and grateful to ESO. These kinds of prizes encourage good journalism in such an important matter as cancer.”
The judges also recognised the work of Ugandan journalist Esther Nakkazi and Zimbabwe-based journalist Busani Bafana. These two journalists highlighted the struggle faced in addressing cancer in low-income countries and the role of the media in spotlighting specific problems. In a piece titled Morphine kills pain, but the price kills patients, Bafana, who writes for the Inter Press Service News Agency, chose to focus on how the healthcare system fails cancer patients in desperate need of pain relief. Nakkazi, a freelance science journalist, who reports for a number of regional African news outlets and the Science for Development Network, wrote about an innovative way to communicate health information to very poor communities. Bafana and Nakkazi will receive Special Merit Award certificates and an example of their work will be published in Cancer World magazine.
Details about how to nominate someone for the 2014 Best Cancer Reporter Award will be available soon on the European School of Oncology’s Cancer Media Service Website.
About the award: The Best Cancer Reporter Award is an original initiative of the European School of Oncology (ESO) and is funded by private donors. Established in 2006, the Award was created to honour and reward excellence in cancer journalism. The Best Cancer Reporter Award 2013 judging panel included Bernhard Albrecht (journalist at the weekly magazine Stern, Germany), Simon Crompton (freelance journalist, UK), Fabio Turone (president of the Association of Science Writers, Italy), Sławomir Zagórski, (Head of Science Section, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland) and Kathy Redmond (Editor, Cancer World, Switzerland). The Award is open to journalists who write for newspapers, magazines or websites targeted at the general public.
About the European School of Oncology (ESO): Milan-based ESO is an independent, non-profit organisation that is dedicated to improving the care and treatment that cancer patients receive. The School was founded in 1982 with the aim of reducing deaths from cancer due to late diagnosis and inadequate treatment. Over the past three decades the School has grown into one of the most important providers of cancer education for physicians, nurses, patient advocates and the media worldwide. Further information about the School is available from www.eso.net
For further information please contact:
Corinne Hall
European School of Oncology
Phone: +39 02 85 46 45 22
Email:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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Invitation to discuss how to improve drug development for children and adolescents with cancer in Europe |
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The EU Paediatric Medicines Regulation came into force on 26th January 2007, aiming to provide better medicines for children. This Regulation is based on rewards, incentives and obligations for pharmaceutical companies; its intention was to accelerate the development of drugs for paediatric diseases, such as malignancies, with no expected direct return on investment for pharmaceutical companies. Warmly welcomed by the paediatric community, the Regulation was expected to facilitate access to anticancer drugs, which are in development in adults and to significantly increase the number of those drugs in clinical development for children and adolescents in Europe.
However, the number of new oncology drugs in paediatric development remains low in Europe. There is still a 10-fold difference between Europe and the US in the number of new anticancer drugs available for clinical research. SIOP Europe, the European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE), considers new therapies for our patients, to be a priority.
- Read an article by SIOPE President, Gilles Vassal, on why innovative therapies for childhood cancer therapies should be prioritised.
- SIOPE and other relevant stakeholders responded to a Public Consultation on the progress of the Regulation, after five years. View our response.
- The European Commission published a report on the Consultation in June 2013.
Now, SIOPE is joining BDA- the Biotherapy Development Association and other stakeholders in Paris in November, to discuss how to tackle current hurdles and explore potential solutions together with experts from academia, regulatory authorities, patient advocates, policymakers and industry.
We invite you to join us in Paris for this very important meeting.
More information
To register, go to the BDA website and read the announcement below.
Save the date:
Workshop: “Improving oncology drug development for children and adolescents”
18 -19 November 2013
Paris, France
A UNIQUE opportunity to address hurdles and explore potential solutions together with experts from ACADEMIA, REGULATORY AUTHORITIES, PATIENT ADVOCATES, POLICYMAKERS and INDUSTRY.
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
In June 2013, the European Commission published the interim report on the first 5 years of the implementation of the EU’s Pediatric Regulation (link to the report). This report and additional publications showed positive changes in the field of pediatric drug development and identified hurdles and bottlenecks in pediatric oncology drug development.
The goal of the meeting is to state where we are, to identify how the strategy for pediatric oncology drug development should be further defined and to propose solutions that may improve the implementation of the regulation in order to better meet the needs of children and adolescents with cancer.
This is a meeting where all stakeholders, namely academia, parents and patients, industry, regulators policymakers and others will share their views and challenges, will interact and propose solutions and actions for the future. This meeting is not aimed to be a consensus meeting.
The meeting will first address where we are at year 5 of the European Pediatric Regulation in the field of oncology and will follow on the actions proposed during the first BDA meeting in December 2011.
Discussions will be focused on three topics of major importance for the future:
§ Mechanism-of-action and biology driven development of oncology drugs for children and adolescents
§ New and innovative partnering for improving cooperation between stakeholders
§ Novel designs and development plans to improve feasibility and speed up introduction of new drugs in standard care.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
§ Representatives from Academia (scientists, clinicians)
§ Representatives from the Pharmaceutical Industry (senior decision makers from pediatric oncology, regulatory affairs, public affairs).
§ Representatives of European regulatory bodies
§ Policymakers
§ Parents and Patient Advocates
VENUE
Hotel Novotel Charenton
3-5 Place des Marseillais
94227 Charenton le pont
France
Venue Website
Ø For more information, visit BDA website or contact the organising secretariat at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ø Register here
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Cancer World Newsletter - The right place for the right patient...at the right cost |
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In the age of austerity, economic drivers are likely to play a determining role in the way health
services are structured and organised. In this editorial, urology surgeon Nicola Nicolai argues
that, to have an impact on developments, the cancer community needs to move beyond the two
dimensional pro- and anti-centralisation debate, and he proposes key criteria for sustainable
services that provide each patient with access to the level of specialist services that they need.
What do you think?
- Can the cancer community reach a consensus on key criteria for the way services are
organised that are valid for every health system?
- If so, are these the right criteria?
You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.
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EU Health Prize for Journalists 2013 |
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DG Health and Consumers launched the 5th edition of the EU Health Prize for Journalists on 14 June 2013.
Journalists writing on health are invited to submit their articles published between 01/08/2012 and 30/09/2013 via the website http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/journalist_prize/. The submission deadline is on 30/09/2013. To see all the rules please go to the website.
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Health-EU e-newsletter - Issue 111, Health and enlargement – Croatia |
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The June edition of the Newsletter can be found here.
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Cancer World Newsletter - Once upon a loss |
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Do you ever let the death of a patient get to you? In this Focus piece, one cancer surgeon talks
about his own experience and argues that shutting down your emotional responses is neither
feasible nor desirable.
What do you think?
- Can you do your professional best for your patient if you get too close to them?
- Does protecting yourself from, being touched by the loss of a patient entail shutting off
compassion and losing part of your humanity?
- Can either approach be sustainable in the long run - and if so, how?
You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.
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Cancer World Newsletter - e-grandround, Chronic and late effects: how physical activity can help |
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Encouraging patients to exercise during and after treatment has been shown to improve their
physical ability to function, lift their mood and potentially even lower their chance of recurrence.
In this e-grandround, one of the key figures behind the landmark ‘Glasgow Study’ presents the
evidence so far on benefit to patients and the cost–benefit to health services, and takes a look
at a pioneering initiative to promote specialist exercise programmes for breast cancer patients.
What do you think?
- Should exercise be routinely prescribed as part of a patient’s overall treatment plan?
- Does your centre have formal access to exercise rehabilitation?
You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.
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Cancer World Newsletter - Systems & Services, When in doubt, ask an expert |
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No pathologist can be an expert in every type and molecular subtype of cancer. Without the necessary
systems and supports in place, they will make mistakes, with potentially serious repercussions for patients.
This Systems & Services article looks at a joint initiative of Rare Cancer Europe and the European Society
of Pathology which aims to ensure that cancer patients everywhere get an accurate diagnosis every time.
What do you think?
- Do you feel you can trust your pathology reports?
- Are your pathologists an integral part of you multidisciplinary team; do they understand the
significance of different parameters and how much hangs on getting everything exactly right?
- Do they have systems and policies in place about seeking expert second opinions in cases of doubt?
- Are there quality controls in place to ensure that any problems are quickly picked up and addressed?
- Could more be done to help pathologists get every diagnosis exactly right, as the amount of
information required on every cancer specimen continues to escalate.
You can read the article here. Press the comment button at the end and share your views.
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