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A healthy lifestyle pattern has been defined as never or past smoking (pack-years <5), no or moderate alcohol drinking (≤1 drink/d for women, ≤2 drinks/d for men), BMI of at least 18.5 but lower than 27.5, and weekly aerobic physical activity of at least 75 vigorous-intensity or 150 moderate-intensity minutes. Research on a very large sample (89 571 women and 46 339 men) proved that substantial cancer burden may be prevented through lifestyle modification (link: https://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2522371). Additional studies seem to prove that single factors such as BMI (link: https://oncology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2522371) and physical exercise (link: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00520-015-2953-9) are effective tools in primary prevention of cancer, and in management of symptoms such as cancer related fatigue. From a psycho-oncological point of view, we may consider psychological health as a component of a mind-body approach to wellbeing. For example, studies on a large sample highlight that a past history of depression is a predictor of poorer overall survival in breast (link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1002/pon.4037), neck and head (link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.29693/abstract) cancer patients.
ASCO Annual Meeting – 3-7 June 2016 Chicago, USA. Early Registration – Closed (Link: http://am.asco.org/)
MASCC/ISOO Annual Meeting on Supportive Care in Cancer. 23-25 June 2016 Adelaide, Australia. Regular Registration – Closing 8th June (link: http://mascc2016.kenes.com/)
ESMO 2016 Congress – 7-11 October 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark. Regular Registration – Closing 30th June (link: http://www.esmo.org/Conferences/ESMO-2016-Congress)
18th International Psycho Oncology Society Congress. 17–21 October 2016 Dublin, Ireland. Early Registration – Closing 30th June 2016 (link: ipos2016.net)
World Cancer Congress – 31 October – 3 November 2016 Paris, France. Hosted by UICC, with the theme of Mobilising Action, Inspiring Change. Discounted registration fees until 31 August 2016 (link: http://www.worldcancercongress.org/ )
ESMO ASIA 2016 Congress – 16-19 December 2016 Singapore. Abstract Submission – Closing 17th August (link: http://www.esmo.org/Conferences/ESMO-Asia-2016-Congress)
EONS 10 Congress – 17-18 October 2016 Dublin, Ireland Early Registration – Closing 30th July 2016 (link: http://eonsdublin2016.com/)
48th SIOP Congress – 19-22 October 2016 Dublin, Ireland Early Registration – Closing 19th June 2016 (link: http://www.siop2016.kenes.com/)
We hope that the IPOS newsletter will spread a sense of belonging among all IPOS members by sharing best practices and fostering professional networking. We’d like to especially promote an easy-to-understand approach and style that can attract different members from different regions and fields. To this end we invite IPOS members to contribute by emailing us with news and alerts about what you think can be relevant for all of us.
Newsletter format: The newsletter is intended to be a quarterly publication. We’ve conceived five sections:
Simone Cheli
Contract Professor, School of Human Health Sciences at the University of Florence
Chief of Research, Psycho-Oncology Unit, Oncological Department of Florence, Italy
Clare Manicom
Oncology Social Work Supervisor, GVI Oncology, Cape Town, South Africa
December 2015 Issue
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IPOS4All
In 2014 the IPOS Board approved the setting up of an online Newsletter for members. The most important reasons for the society’s publication of a newsletter are to disseminate information to members, provide avenues to connect, and help you to really feel part of the global community of psycho-oncologists. The newsletter should convey a sense of belonging and provide opportunities for sharing what you are doing with others. Access should be simple and inclusive and give you a sense of ownership: this is your newsletter.
The aim is to provide a newsletter delivered electronically: it will arrive in your email on a regular basis and requires only that you open it and read!
To develop this effort a call was made for Co-Editors and Clare Manicom and Simone Cheli were appointed, from a strong field of candidates. Their task is to guide your Newsletter through its re-birth. They bring enthusiasm and skill to this not inconsiderable challenge. This is the re-birth of the IPOS Newsletter in e-format.
I say re-birth because IPOS had a Newsletter in the past. Some of you may remember those days when the newsletter was printed on paper and mailed out. Now the world of communication has changed and through email, and the internet we can be more easily connected to our professional community. It also becomes more affordable to have this type of newsletter connection; an important factor for a society that must conserve its resources as a responsibility to the members.
Looking back at some of the earliest issues of the IPOS newsletter was also a reminder that it‘s a way to record events and progress. So when taking a trip down memory lane by reading some of the early editions these were some of the notable milestones:
1989 Winter/Spring Edition: Recorded some details of the 2nd meeting of the IPOS Board held in July 1988. Then in the 1990 Winter/Spring Edition it was reported that the 1st AGM was held in Hamburg, Germany during the 15th UICC Congress.
By 1991 the newsletter was officially designed as Issue Number 1 and details were provided about the first combined scientific meeting of IPOS with the European Society of Psychosocial Oncology [ESPO] and that the 2nd IPOS AGM was held in New York City, USA.
Moving forward to 1993 the society conferred the first honorary memberships on Dr Bernard Fox [USA], Dr Kalle Achte [Finland] and Dr Lawrence Goldie [UK] in recognition of their pioneering work that helped establish the science and clinical practice of psycho-oncology.
At that time, an IPOS position paper was published in the newly established scientific journal Psycho-oncology [“Psycho-oncology: Overview, Obstacles and Opportunities” PON 1(1) pp 1-13 1992] and an abstract of this important paper was published in the IPOS newsletter.
The Present There is so much more to report now, to tell each other and share. Please read the newsletters and enjoy being part of this new endeavour in an era of sophisticated communication methods. Please help by contributing and sharing information with our new editors Clare and Simone.
Maggie Watson Chair IPOS Communications and Publications Committee December 2015
The American Cancer Society has updated the guidelines for breast cancer screening. Under the new guidelines, breast cancer screening can be started at age 45 instead of 40 (http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/american-cancer-society-releases-new-breast-cancer-guidelines). At the same time, organizations such as Mayo Clinic and Breastcancer.org stand by their recommendation that all women have mammograms annually starting at age 40. (http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/acs-guidelines-recommend-mammograms-at-45). Nancy L. Keating stated in an editorial in JAMA (http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2463237) that the debate is far from settled elsewhere in the world.
The 17th World Congress of Psycho-Oncology and Psychosocial Academy in Washington DC was for me an intensive five day multidisciplinary platform for professional development and networking, and for active involvement in committee and international federation work, too. Yes, it was a truly historical meeting in many ways. The most significant professional and personal experience relates to the new IPOS standard - psychosocial care as a human right - discussed and endorsed in inspiring and highly practical panels. The IPOS mentoring lunch, advocacy talks and the federation meeting all created a memorable congress experience for me. For Romania, an underserved country regarding psycho-oncology training and services, it was a historical moment because the IPOS Multilingual Core Curriculum was officially launched in Romanian at this conference. It includes five webcasts in Romanian presented by the Romanian Association for Communication and Services in Oncology. This IPOS/APOS Congress also brought an ever-renewing and inclusive perspective on screening for distress and unmet communication needs in cancer patients. Finally, I did not forget to buy a copy of IPOS's Comfort Food Recipes Book and I just love it. And yes, Dr Holland signed it for me, just another historical moment.
As an Early Career Professional, attending the World Congress of Psycho-Oncology in Washington, DC was an incomparable experience; with opportunities to network with world-class researchers, established and early career, both formally (i.e. the Mentoring Lunches) and informally through the course of the congress. The wide-ranging and engaging program at times made it difficult to decide which sessions to attend – which can never be considered a negative! For me, the most exciting sessions were those which invited me to consider areas and concepts outside that of my own work, particularly the suicide and cancer symposium which not only offered exceptional presentations, but also a stimulating dialogue from presenters and audience members alike – further highlighting the importance of this area. The plenaries were well-considered, and widely relevant, and I found the “Town Hall Meeting” regarding Palliative Care for Patients with Advanced Disease around the World to be insightful and inspiring, as was the Lunchtime Plenary on the subject of Patient Advocacy.
Whilst my work is niche, to say the least, the broader research presented throughout the congress offered unfamiliar and exciting concepts which sparked new interest and enabled me to consider my own research from new perspectives – this, in itself, was invaluable.
Overtime, various scholars have asked: ‘Why do people go to international conferences?’ Some even propose the following: roughly 50% curiosity and 50% vanity! Whereas the first seems definitely correct, when it comes to psychosocial oncology, the second seems far from the truth - I would say it is at least 50% engagement. In fact, the various advantages of attending this international conference year after year is the energy and inspiration that we get from the sense of generosity and community from the Chair, the organizing committee, board members and attendees who present state-of-the art initiatives from various parts of the world. In addition, the opportunity for face-to-face exchanges, exposure to the latest topics and methodology, and the sharing of new and exciting findings designate this conference as an essential event to attend.
The 2015 World Congress of Psycho-Oncology (a joint conference of IPOS and APOS) in Washington, DC went beyond these honorable goals through a thoughtful program design, productive breaks, planning of questions and answers opportunities throughout sessions, panels, symposiums, poster sessions and social gatherings. Yes, the cruise was a success in as much as the dance floor reached over capacity with attendees demonstrating amazing dancing skills! Moreover, the sumptuous views were breath taking.
The thought provoking keynote from Dr Patricia Ganz including the timely topic of precision medicine (once called personalized medicine) and its potential impact on psychosocial oncology as well as the various international presentations from European and Asian researchers and North American perspectives from Canada and the US - all converged to inform new research priorities and therefore served to enrich our field.
Hence, this conference infused me with new ideas, facilitated networking and connections with "old" colleagues, and inspired me to reach out to international research groups from countries that I have yet to visit. These most stimulating exchanges propelled me, when I returned, to write up a sabbatical request that included timely topics and new collaborators.
Once more, IPOS has succeeded in widening our scope and setting the stage for the discovery of new ideas, new colleagues and new friendships!
Etymologically, in "Psycho-Oncology" the person comes before the cancer. Looking back on my very first World Congress in TURKEY, I remember being amazed by the discovery of this new world of knowledge and encounters with likeminded scientists. 2015's unique joined APOS/IPOS World Congress was a refreshing gathering of experts from all continents who have long understood one basic concept: we treat people, not a disease. The conference in Washington was loaded with top quality presentations but the pre-conference workshops are the greatest opportunity for smaller groups to get better acquainted and to participate in interactive sessions with international experts. The energy level was impressive when forty people laid on the floor to perform the body-scan together.
The highlight of 2015's Congress was the poignant and authentic "Dramatic Reading of Sophocles' Philoctetes". In this audience of cancer professionals, people were tearing up after the performance but we were flabbergasted by the life stories our invited panelists narrated. Everyone was touched in their humanity because suffering isn't foreign to any soul.
Hopefully, this makes us more empathetic, understanding and caring to our patients and their families. To quote the late Maya Angelou "We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike".
The English translation of the international bestseller “The Anticancer Diet” has been published. Dr. Daviid Khayat, the author of this book, is the former head of the National Cancer Institute in France. He focuses on 5 golden rules and describes the scientific evidence beyond such guidelines: (I) don’t smoke; (II) eat a varied diet; (iii) try different ways of cooking your food; (iv) try to eat local, seasonal and sustainably-grown products; (v) rebalance your energy input and output.
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Some cancer patients and survivors feel a mental cloudiness or “brain fog” that occurs during and after chemotherapy, sometimes referred to as chemobrain.
Therapies such as acupuncture and massage can be a useful complement to conventional methods of treating cancer. But “cure-all” solutions that claim to eliminate disease naturally aren’t proven to work — and can actually be dangerous for people with cancer.
These are the grants and funding available for projects and research in the cancer field. For more information see the embedded links.
Future technologies (Closes 21 December)
ESMO (Closes 12 January)
American cancer society (Closes 15 February)
Worldwide cancer research (Closes 4 March)
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