PRC News
This page will display news and interesting articles relevant to the PRC.
PRC leading the work on the Lancet oncology commission: Integration of Oncology and Palliative Care
Almost all research on integrating oncology and palliative care is heterogeneous, mainly done in high-income countries, where the variation across systems and settings often limits the generalisability of findings. This commission shows why and how integration is achievable for adults with cancer, irrespective of treatment intention, in high-income and middle-income countries.
The Lancet Oncology commission proposes that use of standardised care pathways, multidisciplinary teams, and improved education programmes could achieve improved care for patients with cancer. https://hubs.ly/H0d_CwW0
To successfully integrate palliative care within oncology care pathways, palliative oncology must be anchored into international and national cancer plans by management and policy makers and be adequately funded.
25% of health-care spending in UK and USA is related to patients in their last year of life, while end of life care takes up 20% of hospital beds; these expenditures can be reduced with palliative oncology integration serving this function: The Lancet Oncology
The commision was launched on ESMO 2018 in a paralell session by Stein Kaasa and as a poster.
Download the podcast where Stein Kaasa and Jon Håvard Loge discuss the new Commision on palliative care here
7th International Seminar of PRC and EAPC RN
The 7th International Seminar of the PRC and EAPC RN was held in Oslo, Norway from 5th to 7th October 2017. Approximately 100 researchers, physicians and others working with or interested in oncology and palliative care research attended the seminar. The international distribution was good, with 16 countries represented, in Europe, North-America and Korea. The first day, starting at noon, was an open pre-seminar session devoted to junior researchers. Seven junior researchers who were at different stages in their careers presented their own projects and received general and specific feedback from the senior panels, as well as from the audience.
The 2-day research seminar was well organized, and the scientific program covered a broad spectrum of topics, that were presented by invited and renowned speakers in the respective fields. The eight highest rated abstracts among the 30 that were submitted were presented orally. Examples of areas that were covered in seminar are research in palliative surgery, radiotherapy, cachexia and nutrition, pain and other symptoms, psycho-oncology, cancer biology and various aspects of and studies on integration of palliative care and oncology. All sessions had time for discussions, and the audience took the opportunity to both raise questions and suggest new ideas and perspectives, thereby creating an active athmosphere.
The next PRC and EAPC RN International Seminar will be hosted in Edinburgh, UK, 12th to 14th December 2018.
Comment from GW Hanks lecturer, Camilla Zimmermann:
Last week I attended the 7th International Seminar of the PRC and EAPC RN: “Collaboration in Cancer Research between Oncology and Palliative Care – Are We There Yet?” I thoroughly enjoyed it. The pre-seminar had excellent presentations from researchers at the PhD and post-doc levels, with plenty of time for discussion and feed-back from researchers and participants. The seminar itself had the perfect balance of oncology and palliative care presentations, with a focus on collaboration between these two highly interrelated fields. I was impressed with the high level of science and the quality of the presentations. There was a friendly, collegial atmosphere, with a lot of opportunity for interaction among presenters and participants. Overall I would highly recommend this seminar to anyone with an interest in palliative care research. See you next year in Edinburgh!