OPEN LETTER TO ALL CANCER PATIENT ADVOCATES v1.0 Dear colleagues, #COVID19 is ravaging through our societies. We already see how it affects cancer patients. Here are my thoughts. In the last weeks, we have seen in our Melanoma community that - follow-up appointments and control scans are postponed - patients are switched to treatments that are less effective but have fewer side effects, can be taken orally instead of IV or are completely taken off treatment - clinical trials are closed, leaving patients whom all other therapies have failed out off options - Stage 4 cancer patients are not being given permission to self-isolate at home 'because they had no COVID19 symptoms' - some patients on forums do not recognise the need to self-isolate and feel that 'cancer was already enough to worry about' - a high level of anxiety and uncertainty - rampant levels of incorrect or unhelpful information And we have no reason to believe that this would be dif
Unfortunately, pain is a constant companion in cancer and without doubt one of the biggest contributors to the overall suffering from cancer. According to the WHO, 55% of patients undergoing treatment for cancer and 66% of those with metastatic or terminal cancer suffer from pain. Even for those surviving cancer, pain can remain as a constant unwelcome companion and reminder of the past. FROM WHO Guidelines for the pharmacological and radiotherapeutic management of cancer pain in adults and adolescents While we were taught at Medical School that 'with modern medication, no patient should have to suffer pain', anyone in the cancer field knows how far from reality that statement is. Anyone who has ever tried to book an appointment with a pain specialist knows how hard THAT alone can be...so we need better solutions to reduce the suffering from pain. So here now comes the Cancer Pain Trello - what do we have to do in order to reduce the impact of pain for cancer pat