Policy
Long-term health: is it time to update the priorities of cancer research?
“I was told that cancer was a temporary condition ‒ just get through treatment and things will go back to normal. I quickly realised that this is not true.” Gregory Aune was treated for Hodgkin’s disease when he was 17.…
Preventing burnout: are we too focused on personal resilience?
Burnout. That short word barely conveys the dispirited cycle of weariness, negativity and powerlessness health staff experience when high aspirations to help and cure are consumed in an unattainable to-do list. “You're trying your best but nothing's moving and you…
From social determinants to cancer outcomes: the cell biology behind the disparities
Raised levels of stress are a normal response to being diagnosed with cancer, and asking patients about their psychological and emotional wellbeing is, or should be, a normal part of attending to their quality of life. But can stress directly…
A success story in Romania’s struggle to control cervical cancer
In rural Romania, in a small town called Sadova, some 200 km west of the country’s capital Bucharest, the local community is trying to ensure that their daughters don’t have to live in dread of cervical cancer. Sadova is an…
Developing palliative care: new WHO guidance helps countries tailor their own path
Image: Delivering palliative care in Kerala, India ©Camilla Perkins, camillaperkins.com Delivering palliative care to avoid unnecessary health-related suffering is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “a moral imperative and a human right”. Yet only a tiny proportion of…
Global elimination: securing a future free from cervical cancer
August 7th 2020, much of the world was in various states of lockdown, anxiously awaiting news about progress in development of vaccines against the new SARS-Cov-2 virus, which by then had taken the lives of almost 1 million people. But…
Do patents encourage or discourage innovation? Intellectual property from ancient Greece to the Covid pandemic
In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) a proposal for a waiver from certain provisions of the Trips agreement – the 1994 WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The rationale…
The invisible cure. Should we be talking more about cancer surgery?
The best chance of being cured of cancer is through surgery by expert surgeons with a deep knowledge of oncology. Why then are the public, patients and policy makers so focused on drugs, and does it matter? Mass media have…
On being a woman in oncology: in their own words
Over the past two decades, Cancer World has had the privilege of publishing profiles of many women who have been leading efforts to improve the quality of cancer care. Coming from all corners of Europe, working in all areas of…
Informal carers play a key role in cancer care: they need and deserve more support
What is it worth to patients to have someone they can rely on to provide emotional support and talk things through, help them get to and from appointments, remind them about what medicines to take and when, help them eat…