Posts by tag
policy
Prevention messages: negotiating the tricky interface between medicine and popular culture
“Cigarettes are shit.” The slogan is neither creative nor informative, yet it had an impact beyond all expectations in Poland in 1994. These were the early days of post-communism: tobacco companies were making the most of the opportunities of the…
Tackling the crisis in Europe’s oncology workforce
"We’ve heard politicians saying, ‘It's a time bomb’. No, it's not a time bomb. We see the system is cracking completely right now." Norbert Couespel, senior coordinator of policy research at the European Cancer Organisation, voices his deep frustration at…
A European roadmap to improve men’s cancer outcomes
Ensuring gender-neutral HPV vaccination, more flexible GP access hours, and national cancer plans tackling gender specific needs are among the policies that have been identified to improve male cancer outcomes. The roadmap ‘Time to Accelerate: Action on Men and Cancer’,…
Further and faster: ECO mobilises to accelerate momentum from Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan
“All over Europe new initiatives are being triggered. New communities of action are being formed, from young cancer trainees taking part in interspecialty training together, to cancer centres in every country getting ready to be part of a brand new…
Unpaid women carers: recognising their contribution and their needs in Latin America
Researchers and public policies have historically overlooked the challenges of informal caregiving for cancer patients in Latin America. Now, public health experts are working to profile this neglected group, evaluate their quality of life and put an economic value on…
The cancer patients still struggling to access drugs in the wake of anti-corruption reforms
Miriam Espinoza, a food vendor from Michoacán, Mexico, still remembers the day she received her cancer diagnosis in 2019. After months of waiting for a CT scan and several visits to gynaecologists, who told her that the lump in her…
Ending cancer inequalities: European summit showcases new tools to inform policy
Two ambitious data initiatives aimed at tracking a wide range of inequalities that contribute to big differences in the risk of dying from cancer were highlighted in the opening session of the 2022 European Cancer Summit, held in Brussels, November…
A success story in Romania’s struggle to control cervical cancer
In rural Romania, in a small town called Sadova, some 200 km west of the country’s capital Bucharest, the local community is trying to ensure that their daughters don’t have to live in dread of cervical cancer. Sadova is an…
Developing palliative care: new WHO guidance helps countries tailor their own path
Image: Delivering palliative care in Kerala, India ©Camilla Perkins, camillaperkins.com Delivering palliative care to avoid unnecessary health-related suffering is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “a moral imperative and a human right”. Yet only a tiny proportion of…
How we turn lung cancer care into a European success story
Opportunities to make significant headway against cancer don’t come around very often. This year, an alignment of science and European cancer policy is opening such an opportunity in relation to lung cancer ‒ Europe’s single biggest cancer killer. Speaking as…