Voices
Liver patient advocates to Europe’s cancer community: can we talk?
Europe’s Beating Cancer plan is galvanising the cancer community behind efforts to tackle rising trends that are currently on course for an almost 25% rise in deaths from cancer across Europe by 2035. We want to help. Liver cancer is…
We need a National Cancer Institute! Why Italy should follow the example of the US and France
The genomic revolution and advances in technology are making the pursuit of innovation in oncology increasingly challenging. In Italy, the number and the diversity of the players in the field of experimental and clinical research, and the output of indexed…
When your patient tells you they’re still not better, please accept what they say
“A staggeringly high number of patients still suffer from significant health issues years after being declared disease free.” The words of Dorothy Keefe, head of Australia’s national cancer agency and chair of the 2021 ESMO Congress supportive and palliative care…
Breast cancer surgery should be a job for certified specialists – an appeal
Many women, knowing they need surgery for breast cancer, are afraid of looking disfigured after their operation. The question, on day one, is how and where to find a specialist breast surgeon. Personal recommendations cannot always be relied on. Often,…
From the New Yorker: What Cancer Takes Away
When I got sick, I warned my friends: Don’t try to make me stop thinking about death. Before I got sick, I’d been making plans for a place for public weeping, hoping to install in major cities a temple where…
A 360° approach to a 360° problem: why a mission is the right approach to solving cancer
Medical researcher Bettina Ryll learned about the gap between how research is done and what patients need when her husband was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in 2011. She set up Melanoma Patient Network Europe and opened up discussions on how…
Workload doubled, resources halved: cancer patient groups need help to survive the pandemic
COVID-19 is creating significant challenges for millions of cancer patients around the world, including delays in diagnosis and treatment ‒ all made worse by an underlying concern about the essential safety of cancer patients during a pandemic. Since the outset…
COVID-19 is delaying diagnosis, but getting back to normal is not what we need
Across the globe, all human and technical resources in healthcare are currently focused on dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having an impact on other areas of healthcare. At Digestive Cancers Europe, the patient advocacy group for people with…
Telling stories about cancer ‒ six award-winning journalists show how it’s done
We often talk about the need to break down ‘silos’ in cancer care – to view treatment, care and research holistically, collaborating around patient needs. Who would have thought that journalists would show clinicians the way? Of all the changes…
EORTC pushes for the State of Science in Care
Covid-19 has taught us that we need to think differently about many issues. One of the most important, in my view, is that we need to be ready to act quickly and decisively rather than just identifying and talking about…