News

Brachytherapy: halting the spiral of decline

Brachytherapy, a standard of care for some cancer indications, which involves delivering radiotherapy from a source within the tumour, is underfunded, increasingly marginalised and in decline across much of Europe. Janet Fricker talked to specialists [more]
New dawn in prostate cancer diagnosis

In expert hands, diagnostic multiparametric MRI is more effective than the dreaded prostate biopsy as the first step in identifying prostate cancers. It is certainly less unpleasant. Guidelines and practice are changing to reflect this, [more]
Matteo Lambertini: keeping the family dream alive

For many young women with breast cancer, the chance to have a child is a top priority. They want to know what different treatments could do to their fertility and the health of a future [more]
Comprehensive cancer care networks – Test driving the model in southern Czechia

What does an ideal cancer service look like and how can countries/regions make that transformation? A European collaborative project spent two years trying to answer this question. The solution they came up with is now [more]
Bad for budgets, but also for patients – Challenging the in-patient culture of central and eastern Europe

While many western countries are pioneering safe delivery of more cancer care in primary, community and home settings, across central and eastern Europe, beds in university hospitals and cancer centres are still filled unnecessarily with [more]
Communicating with patients with advanced and metastatic cancer

People with incurable cancer need doctors who offer them hope but also give them a clear idea of what is realistically possible. Doctors can find it hard to be both empathic and honest when the [more]
On a Mumbai street, aspiring soldier endures India’s cancer-care crisis

Recent studies have begun to quantify the size of India’s cancer burden, and the barriers to accessing diagnosis and care. This article, first published in IndiaSpend, presents those data to a mass audience through the [more]
Should breast surgeons use ultrasound?

Surgeons are increasingly using ultrasound for visual guidance, both in an interoperative setting, to help ensure a clean cut around the tumour, and also to guide breast biopsies. Radiologists however are warning that performing and [more]
Tit Albreht: Europe’s unofficial head of cancer policy

In 2006, Slovenia staged the ‘United Against Cancer’ summit, with a view to closing the gap in prevention and survival between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Europe. Tit Albreht, from the National Institute of Public Health, was [more]
The Car T cell revolution: what does it offer, and can we afford it?

In August 2018 the first therapies aimed at re-engineering patients own T cells to attack cancer entered the European market. Rachel Brazil looks at how they work, what they achieve, and what the logistical and [more]