Supporting patients in distress
The emotional and psychological impact of being diagnosed and treated for cancer can be at least as severe as the toll the disease and treatment takes on a patient’s physical health. Distress – the range [more]
September 2013
Jim Watson: DNA revealed the causes, it may never reveal a cure
Nobel laureate Jim Watson is calling on the cancer community to take a long hard look at what has been achieved by blocking the molecular signals that drive individual cancers Sixty years after Jim Watson [more]
A calculated choice
Computers are better than doctors at processing the large amounts of information involved in personalising treatments. But which decision-making tools can be relied on, and how can they best be used to help inform shared [more]
Easing the cancer journey
Having to travel long distances or stay away from home while being treated for cancer takes its toll in anxiety, stress and isolation. Could more be done to ensure policies that centralise services dont make [more]
Radiotherapy capacity across Europe: What it should be, and what it is
Winning the argument for expanding and upgrading radiotherapy facilities is not easy in the present economic climate. How many radiotherapy mach-ines are there in each country in Europe? It might seem an easy question to [more]
New paradigms to explain metastasis
Understanding what drives cancer cells to break loose, travel around the body and seed new tumours and how to inhibit this process will be key to developing effective new therapies Metastasis – the [more]
Refusing treatment
People take treatment decisions on the basis of their personal perspectives as much as the medical pros and cons. Doctors need to be able to deal with this. This article was first published in The [more]
Secobarbital in Seattle – why lose sleep?
The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance has added physician-assisted suicide to its host of services for patients within the final six months of life. According to a recent report published in the New England Journal of [more]
My World – Clodagh McHugh
Clodagh McHugh works as an oncology nurse specialist with patients at every stage of their disease and with all types of cancer. Based at a leading teaching hospital in Dublin, she lectures on oncology nursing [more]