Is a global movement to tackle cancer possible?
At some point in this century cancer will become the leading cause of global deaths. It is already the leading cause of premature death under the age of 70 in 48 higher income countries and [more]
October 2017
We’re researching the history of oncology: What’s in it for you?
The history of medicine has often been reduced to hagiography – a celebration of past events lacking critical scrutiny. The contemporary history of oncology, with its ‘breakthroughs’ and ‘disruptive’ innovations, has likewise been exposed to [more]
Ending the isolation: a guide to developing national rare cancers networks
European Reference Networks can only work if member states designate and develop their own accredited specialist centres that can network across borders. Simon Crompton talks to some of the policy makers, clinicians and patient advocates [more]
Building the clinical evidence on metformin and cancer
Population studies, mouse models, and mechanistic studies all show that metformin, a cheap well-tolerated diabetes drug, impacts in some way on how some cancers develop and progress. Anna Wagstaff talks to clinicians and researchers building [more]
Omar Youssef: aesthetic surgery is not just a Western luxury
Training Egypt’s breast surgeons in techniques of plastic surgery is giving survivors a better quality of life and transforming women’s attitudes towards the disease. Having proved it is possible in his own country, Omar Youssef [more]
How much is too much? Will someone please take charge of finding answers?
Precision medicine was meant to see the end of ‘maximum tolerated dose’ as the standard for introducing new drugs. It hasn’t happened, and many patients continue to suffer unnecessary toxicity from overtreatment, with health services [more]
Let’s be honest: our research efforts centre on drugs not patients
Precision oncology is about understanding what is driving an individual’s cancer growth, resistance and metastasis, and then targeting those pathways accordingly. Our current research models are good at developing drugs to hit targets. They are [more]
Advanced breast cancer advocacy goes global
The advanced breast cancer community has spent many years defining the treatment, care and support patients need to help them live longer and feel and function better. They’ve now formed an alliance to advocate for [more]
Immunotherapy in relapsed refractory Hodgkin lymphoma
A chromosomal alteration present in almost all patients with Hodgkin lymphoma makes the disease uniquely vulnerable to PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockers. Astrid Pavlovsky reviews the trial evidence and clinical experience, and looks to the future [more]
Radiotherapy and immunotherapy: a beneficial liaison?
Ralph Weichselbaum and colleagues explore how enhancing innate and adaptive immunity by combining radiotherapy and immune therapy could tip the balance of the host immune response to promote cure. This is a summary, by Janet [more]
The do-nothing dilemma
To treat or not to treat? Different people respond in different ways to learning they have lesions that may or may not develop into threatening cancers. Charlotte Huff talks to ‘patients’, doctors and psychologists about [more]
Chuck Bogosta, President, UPMC International
UPMC is a 14-billion-dollar integrated global health enterprise, closely linked to the University of Pittsburgh. Twenty years ago it opened a transplant hospital in Sicily. Since then, its International arm has expanded to build hospitals [more]
A is for apple (but not always in Africa)
In many books used for teaching the alphabet to children, the letter A is associated to an apple: the association may seem obvious, but usually it is not so for an African child: in Africa [more]