No easy road to outsmart cancer
Hopes of greatly speeding up the evaluation of new therapies by using tumour response to a short course of neoadjuvant treatment as a surrogate for clinical benefit have proved false and the sooner we recognise [more]
July 2015
How long do I have? Story of a myeloma patient
The patient rejects the standard of care. The oncologist cannot answer his question How long do I have? Is the treatment course they agree on second best, or best? This article was first published online [more]
Who should we screen for the BRCA gene?
Most people carrying harmful BRCA mutations only find out after they are diagnosed with cancer, and often not even then. Population screening is costly and the results can be hard to interpret. But should we [more]
Frederic Amant: building the evidence base for saving mother and child
Understanding the impact of treating the mother on the long-term health of her unborn child has long been held back by logistical and ethical obstacles to researching this rare patient population. Frédéric Amant took up [more]
The vitamin D question: what’s the best advice?
The beta-carotene fiasco warned oncologists off suggesting supplements on the basis of observational studies. But with vitamin D now in the spotlight, how should doctors respond when their patients ask if it could help? A [more]
Medical tourism: a passport to timely high-quality care?
For many patients seeking access to treatments unavailable in their home country, the Cross-border Healthcare Directive turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. But a closer look shows it may help raise standards [more]
Recognising and reducing the risk of chemotherapy extravasation
When chemotherapy drugs leak from the veins it can cause serious injury to the patient, greatly heighten their fears of undergoing future treatment cycles, and undermine their trust in their medical team. Knowing how to [more]
Cancer Core Europe
Can deep and close-knit collaboration between a handful of elite centres achieve what broader European research platforms and projects cannot? There has been talk about setting up a European cancer institute to rival the American [more]