Ten years reporting from the front line
Rabiya Tuma won a Best Cancer Reporter Award for her contributions to The Economist. Here her article highlights some of the growing evidence about the role of stem cells in cancer. Download full article
Best Cancer Reporter Award
The no miracle cure’ story
The story of step-by-step progress, with occasional leaps forward and frequent setbacks, is not one the media enjoys telling. But it does need to be told if patients and society are to learn to live [more]
Addicted to wonder drugs
When stories exaggerate the implications of the latest research, is this the fault of the media? Asession on reporting cancer breakthroughs found pressure also comes from researchers and pharmaceutical companies. Maybe the greatest pressure comes [more]
Are we educating women to be afraid? UK health reporter questions the value of simplistic screening messages
Breast screening programmes won’t work if women don’t attend. But can this justify campaigns that exaggerate both the risk of getting breast cancer and the benefits of screening? Margaret McCartney believes not. She won a [more]
Everyone deserves the best chance to survive
When it comes to cancer, newspapers tend to home in on tragic stories of young mothers or children. The big story of the explosion of cancer cases among the elderly and the urgent need for [more]
If nothing is done…
The more we know about cancer, the harder it becomes to present a coherent and accurate picture of the nature of the threat and what canand what cannot be achieved through changing lifestyles, screening and [more]
The neglected magic bullet
Surgery still offers by far the best hope of a cure in solid tumours. Yet patients are being let down by too great a focus on drugs at the expense of investment in surgical equipment [more]
There’s a shadow in your head
Eric Baumann, a healthy 34-year-old, in love with life and his new girlfriend, had just started as the new London correspondent for the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. His description, [more]
Do-it-yourself Chemotherapy Access
Internet chatrooms offer patients a forum to discuss new therapies and exchange tips on how to get access to experimental drugs sometimes from sources that have neither responsibility for nor interest in their welfare. [more]
Polish reporter wins ESO award for coverage of colonoscopy screening
Colonoscopy screening has the potential to save thousands of lives, but only if the public is prepared to go along with it. Polish journalist Pawel Walewski won the ESO Best Reporter Award 2007 for his [more]
From plan to practice
The French Cancer plan of 2003 raised expectations among the public and patients.This article, which looks at how a key measure is being implemented in practice, was one of several stories that earned Paul Benkimoun [more]
The write stuff
Cancer has a pretty poor public image. Myths and misconceptions fuel negative attitudes and ignorance about the disease. The media, in turn, can either fuel these misconceptions, or it can challenge them. Download full article
Reporting cancer from the inside
Catherine Kalamis of the Guernsey Press won a Best Reporter Award 2006 for a series of articles based on personal experiences of living with cancer. Below we reprint A life-changing moment, where she explains why [more]