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 ...
Diary about my thoughts and learnings from the Horizon Europe Mission Board for Cancer.