EAPC - ESMO collaboration

Most patients in palliative care have a cancer diagnosis and a substantial number of patients in oncological wards receive treatment with a palliative intention.

The oncologists pay today more attention to the comprehensive management of his patient and he uses the conventional armamentarium such at chemotherapy, biological therapy and radiotherapy to prevent or relive symptoms.

Due to the new development in oncology more patients are living longer and they receive anti-tumour treatment for a longer period of time. The “new cohorts” of patients may potentially suffer longer with a more complex symptom pattern and they will receive care at various institutions. How this is organised will vary substantially between countries within Europe. But independent of organisational differences a close collaboration needs to be established between palliative medicine specialists and oncologists. An initiative has been taken to promote collaboration between ESMO and EAPC with the overall aim to improve patient care as well as to explore how to collaborate in teaching and research.

Raphael Catane from Israel is appointed by ESMO as the liasson person and Stein Kaasa is in this position on behalf of the EAPC.

During the next research forum in Venice (https://eapcnet.org/research2006/index.html) a joint session will take place with the title:

“Palliation with oncological treatment: a joint ESMO-EAPC session”