ECC2015 News 23 October 2022 A European picture of cancer care For a few short days, ECC2015 let researchers and clinicians indulge in visionary thinking and gaze into the future. But in Saturday’s Presidential Session I, Dr Milena Sant from the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tu… 22 October 2022 Helping cancer patients return to work Society is balancing the effects of an increase in the life expectancy of the general population with deferments in retirement age, extending the length of a person’s working life. At the same time, improvements in treatment … 22 October 2022 How do we ensure quality and equality? What are generics and biosimilars? What is the difference between substandard and counterfeit medicines? These questions, which reflect the confusion felt by patients and patient advocates, were among the issues discussed in… 21 October 2022 Immune cell manipulation in the fight against cancer The role of immune cells in the destruction of tumours has long been recognised and research to enhance the host effect continues to show that this approach holds great therapeutic promise. 21 October 2022 Reducing the size of the drug development graveyard A staggering 93% of oncology drugs fail to transition from phase I to regulatory approval, coupled with ever increasing costs for drug development, so there is a need to examine how to improve the oncology drug development pr… 20 October 2022 Targeting a growing problem Brain metastases are a relatively neglected area of cancer research. Yet, around 30% or more of cancer patients, particularly those with lung and breast cancers and melanoma, will develop them at some point during their disea… 20 October 2022 Prognostic value of gene mutation profiles Identification of genomic alterations in lung cancer has led to development of gene-targeted therapies, but can the prognosis for individual patients with lung cancer be predicted from their gene mutation profile? This topic… 19 October 2022 Targeted therapies for sarcomas: Where do we stand? Targeted therapies offer real hope to patients with sarcomas, although there is still some way to go in identifying the most effective targets for the treatment of this diverse range of tumour types. 19 October 2022 Distinct epigenetic profile of colorectal cancer in young patients: Treatment implications Young patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) show differences in somatic gene mutations and DNA methylation compared with older patients, which can be exploited to develop better therapies for this age group. These are the con… 18 October 2022 When do head and neck cancer patients need most support? Oncologists know the fine line they tread. Every day they must make difficult decisions, trying to balance functional outcomes against quality of life (QoL). How do you weigh survival against side effects and when do patients… 18 October 2022 Renal cell carcinoma: immunotherapies extend survival Current therapies for advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are associated with limited overall survival (OS) in previously treated patients. Potentially practice-changing results from trials in patients who had r… 17 October 2022 Are innovative cancer drugs just too expensive? The rising trend in oncology drug costs is not sustainable and we need to recognise that there is a limit to what we can spend on treating cancer.1 Dr Paul Cornes from Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, UK, who addresse… 17 October 2022 PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors in NSCLC: Where are we? Lung cancer continues to dominate as the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The emergence of targeted therapies,1 such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors for patients with EGFR mut… 16 October 2022 Understanding mutational drivers for breast cancer relapse and metastasis: New advances Relapse is a major cause of treatment failure in patients with breast cancer and increased understanding of the mutational drivers of disease recurrence and metastasis is needed to allow better identification of high-risk pat… 16 October 2022 Poor outcomes for migrants and refugees with cancer Each year, a considerable number of people are forcibly displaced from their country of origin because of migration or refugee status. 15 October 2022 Cancer patients and sexual health Cancer and its treatments are well recognised to cause sexual health problems. The sorts of physical and psychosexual challenges patients may experience will depend on many factors, including their specific cancer disease, it… 15 October 2022 Should we use the same protocols in children and adults? Keen to stimulate dialogue and debate in overlapping areas of research, ECC2015 features a greater-than-ever number of Integrated Sessions covering a wide range of topics. 14 October 2022 Primary surgery may improve survival in patients with advanced cancers of the throat Controversy exists over whether patients with advanced oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal tumours are best treated with primary surgery or chemoradiotherapy. 14 October 2022 Combining radiotherapy and immunotherapy: Hope or hype? Radiotherapy has long been a mainstay of the treatment of many different types of cancer. By contrast, immunotherapy is a relative new comer to the stage. The combination of the old and the new is generating a good deal of in… 13 October 2022 ECC2015 in Vienna: Welcome! In front of hundreds of delegates on the opening evening in Vienna, Professor Christoph Zielinski, Chair of the National Organising Committee, officially opened the 18th ECCO – 40th ESMO European Cancer Congress, ECC2015.
