News

The dismissed cancer tech assessment

Despite the prominent global debate on the ethics of technology and the increasing need for technology assessment before approval, anticipatory approaches, especially in oncology, are still in their infancy In the age of artificial intelligence [more]
Radio-immunotherapy, a work in progress

The potential for combining radiotherapy with immunotherapy is enormous, yet experts say that radio-immunotherapy still has a long way to go before entering into routine clinical practice One of the hot topics discussed at ESTRO38, [more]
The big challenge of treating adolescents and young adults with cancer

No longer children and not yet adults, adolescents and young adults with cancer represent a specific patient population posing outstanding challenges to oncologists all over the world. Challenging but rewarding. This is how physicians described [more]
Dr. Fraud’s jungle, where science is the prey

With the advent of Open Access – a new publishing model that asks researchers to pay to make their research publicly accessible – unscrupulous predators were granted easy access to a house full of naïve and ingenuous scientists and doctors, and today thrive at their expense, and at the expense of science, including cancer research. [more]
Better care or just more high-tech? Defining the value of new radiotherapy treatments

Many patients are being treated with costly new radiotherapy treatments on the basis of hype rather than evidence that they stand to benefit. For others, lack of evidence is delaying access to new treatments that [more]
Shortages of generic cancer medicines are harming patients. So why can’t we fix it?

Despite more than a decade of efforts to address the problem, cancer patients across Europe and the US still cannot rely on essential drugs being available when they need them. Rachel Brazil looks at the [more]
Access to quality cancer care: Is the cross border healthcare directive helping or hindering?

The EU cross border healthcare directive – officially the ‘Directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross border healthcare’ – has been in force across member states for more than five years now. It [more]
‘Relentless and debilitating’: why is nausea still a problem, and how can we do better?

A whole armamentarium of antiemetic drugs has dramatically reduced the level of vomiting related to cancer treatment. But nausea, in particular, is still troubling patients. Sophie Fessl explores the causes, and asks: why is this still [more]
Better outcomes, better experiences: why cancer nursing is a job for specialists

The European Oncology Nursing Society has compiled the evidence to show the value of the work cancer nurses do, and the specialist training and education they need to do it. Now they’re calling on policy [more]
If it’s approved but not reimbursed, what do you say?

“There are doctors who do not inform the patients about [non-reimbursed options] because it is less stressful”. “I explain to them that if they were treated in more developed countries, the treatment strategy would be [more]