Articles
Untreated malnutrition is rife among cancer patients: here’s how we can do better
In the mid-1970s, the US medical community was shocked by an article published in Nutrition Today under the title ‘The Skeleton in the Hospital Closet’. "I suspect that one of the largest pockets of unrecognized malnutrition in America exists, not…
Supporting mental health helps patients feel better – could it also improve cancer outcomes?
Psychological stress is a known factor in numerous diseases from heart failure to auto-immune conditions. Evidence is now growing that implicates stress as a factor in cancer as well, with higher rates of recurrence and progression found in people experiencing…
Quality care, free of charge, and closer to home: expanding access to cancer services in India
Rahul Jain and his mother Shashi were in Pune – 1,000 km from their home in Ashoknagar, in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh – when they were told there was no hope. They had undertaken the long journey together…
Hospice caring for women with cervical cancer launches own mobile screening clinic
It’s 9.30 in the heart of Kaliro district in eastern Uganda, and a group of women is already gathered outside the Nansololo Health Centre II by the time the van from the Rays of Hope Hospice Jinja arrives. They are…
Breast surgery: closing the quality gap in Poland
This investigation was prompted by the story of Julia, a lawyer who fled her home in Kyiv in the spring of 2022, as Russian forces were advancing on Ukraine’s capital. At the time, the mother of two was reaching the…
Shared decision making: translating our aspirations into clinical practice
Despite growing awareness of the importance of shared decision making in cancer, there is plenty of evidence that it is still not being implemented as it should be. A national survey of patient experience from the Danish Cancer Society found…
Precision medicine for all!
Every year, around 2.3 million people across the globe are diagnosed with breast cancer. For lack of access to the right diagnostic test, many of them are being treated with chemotherapy that is doing them more harm than good –…
‘The future of cancer treatment’, as seen by Tak Mak, whose lab paved the way for T- cell receptor based immunotherapies
Ni Miikana is a Native American expression meaning "my path". My path, my journey in science is not about me, it is about the institutions that have supported us and the many mentors and mentees who made this talk possible.…
Cancer drugs for Africa… from Africa?
More than two years ago, Cipla Quality Chemical Industries, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Kampala, Uganda, announced that it would start producing cancer drugs. In a deal agreed in 2021 with the Ministry of Health, the company, which is part…
Cracking RAS: It took over 30 years to hit this ubiquitous oncogene – was it worth the wait?
RAS oncogenes and their proteins have central roles in almost all cancers, including leukaemias, multiple myelomas, skin cancers and many solid tumours, making the RAS protein family an ideal cancer target. But efforts to develop clinically efficacious drugs to target…