Delivery of Care

Articles

The voice of the older adult: how to make it count in decisions about their care

Involving patients as equal partners in choosing between treatment options is particularly important when there is considerable uncertainty about how the options could affect their survival and quality of life. Such is…

Articles

Integrative and complementary cancer care mends an ancient division to put patients first

Physicians and cancer services provide better care when they recognise the benefit that complementary therapies can bring to their patients’ mental and physical wellbeing – as well as the potential risks. Complementary…

Articles

Hero? Survivor? Using the right words matters, but it’s not always straightforward

A new survey of 1,871 people living with cancer in the UK and US has revealed significant differences in the terms that they would like to be used to describe themselves. Descriptive…

Articles

Pooled procurement of drugs saves millions for Indian cancer centres

A pilot project pooling the procurement of cancer drugs has led to cancer institutes in India saving over USS 116 million – an 82% average reduction on the drugs' reference prices. The…

Articles

Regional cancer centres to boost access to cancer care across Uganda

The Uganda Cancer Institute, set up in Kampala in 1967 as a centre for research and treatment of lymphoma, was one of the first cancer treatment centres in East Africa, and continues…

Articles

Geriatric oncology: how physicians in Latin America are personalising treatments and changing attitudes

When Gerardo Silveyra, a retired chemist from Toluca, Mexico, thinks about his recently deceased mother, Guadalupe Contreras, he regrets not having taken her to see a geriatrician sooner. Contreras, who died aged…

Articles

HPV vaccination: generating demand by spreading knowledge and information

"The most sustainable way is for people to understand that when my girl reaches 10 years, I just take her for the HPV vaccine. That's the sustainable way where all of us…

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…

Articles

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…

Articles

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…