Project News and Updates.

Erice Statement on Survivorship Updated

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It’s hard to believe it’s been over 10 years since the first Erice statement in 2016, which laid out 10 key points summarising the essential components of cure and care for childhood cancer survivors!

In Nov 2016, 65 pediatric cancer experts from 17 European countries and North America, including many members of the PanCareLIFE team, met in Erice as part of the semi-annual PanCare meeting to review the original statement. They have now published an updated version of the statement in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-018-0701-0).

 

PanCareLIFE in the German media

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On 21 June, members of the German press joined a tour of three EU projects in Mainz, which included PanCareLIFE. The tour was organised by the Regional Representation of the European Commission in Bonn.

During an hour-long session, the impact of PanCareLIFE’s research into fertility and hearing impairment late effects in long-term survivors was described, as well as how our results can be used to inform the development of future diagnostics and therapies for young cancer patients. During the visit, survivors also talked about their lives after cancer.

Following the tour, the EU projects featured in an article in Allgemeine Zeitung.

The project summary presented at the tour is available in German.

Coordinator Peter Kaatsch (middle) with members of the Mainz PanCareLIFE team, Claudia Spix (left) and Desiree Grabow (right)

 

Childhood Cancer International Latest Newsletter

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It’s been a busy few months for Childhood Cancer International!

Learn about their work to put pediatric cancer on the EU agenda and more here in their latest newsletter.

PanCareLIFE to feature at German Press Conference on EU projects

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On Thursday, June 21, 2018, PanCareLIFE will be featured at a press conference highlighting EU-funded projects in the Rhineland-Palatinate region.

Three EU-funded projects, which have received a total of around 11 million euros from the EU, will feature:

  1. In the PanCareLIFE project, researchers are looking at late effects, such as infertility and hearing loss among long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Long-term survivors of childhood cancer will join the press to talk about their life after cancer.
  2. In the project SuPro, scientists are developing self-cleaning surfaces that repel water, dirt or oil. During the press tour, researchers will show self-cleaning works and how it can be used to benefit industry and medicine in the future.
  3. In the project Excatro, a measuring device is being developed that analyzes the composition of air masses. On-site, the cloud researcher will perform a practical measurement and report on a test flight with the measuring device into the clouds.

Learn more here.

Influence of genetic variation on late toxicities in childhood cancer survivors

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Check out our latest open access publication in Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology!

PanCareLIFE features in FNM Newsletter

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The March edition of the FNM newsletter includes a feature on PanCareLIFE. The article describes how the paradigm in childhood oncology has changed from acute care to cure cancer to chronic care, where there is a focus on cure but also on prevention of late effects and their lifelong, informed management. Lifelong management relies on systematic research in late effects, like that conducted in PanCareLIFE, as well as sophisticated systems of care transition for adult survivors and empowering survivors to co-manage their own care through initiatives like Together to Smile in the Czech Republic.

You can read more in Czech here.

Read our March 2018 newsletter!

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Our latest newsletter is now out – have a look!

 

Save the Date! PanCareLIFE Final Conference

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The PanCareLIFE final conference will be held 26 October 2018 in Paris – save the date!

Audiological monitoring in Swiss childhood cancer patients

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PanCareLIFE researchers at UNIBE have just published a new paper ‘Audiological monitoring in Swiss childhood cancer patients’, funded in part by PanCareLIFE.

Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 65(3) e26877, DOI: 10.1080/08880018.2017.1323985

Abstract

Background

Full audiological monitoring is the best strategy to detect hearing loss early and to provide timely intervention in the absence of a clinical method of otoprotection. Full monitoring requires audiological evaluation before, and then during and after ototoxic cancer treatment. In a worldwide context of monitoring protocols that vary substantially, we analyzed the audiological monitoring of childhood cancer patients over the last decade across treatment centers in Switzerland.

Procedure

We retrospectively searched for audiological evaluations in all nine Swiss Pediatric Oncology Centers. We analyzed proportions of patients who had audiological monitoring and described type and timing of monitoring. We determined predictors of audiological monitoring using multivariable logistic regression and described time trends.

Results

We included 185 patients from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry diagnosed from 2005 to 2013 who had platinum chemotherapy and/or cranial radiation ≥30 Gray and who were alive at time of study. Less than half of children, 43%, had full audiological monitoring (before, during, and after treatment), while 72% were tested after cancer treatment. Nonstudy patients were less likely to have had monitoring in all phases of cancer treatment. Patients who received treatment with cisplatin or both platinum chemotherapy and cranial radiation were more likely to have had monitoring after treatment. Monitoring during and after treatment increased over the study period, but monitoring before treatment was insufficient in all time periods.

Conclusions

Our population-based study indicates that audiological monitoring is insufficient in Switzerland, particularly for nonstudy patients. Clinicians must become more aware of the importance of full audiological monitoring.

Survivorship and fertility on German TV

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PanCareLIFE’s Anja Borgmann-Staudt from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin was interviewed as part of a BR24 TV programme on fertility issues encountered by childhood cancer survivors.

Learn more about fertility education, starting from 1:00.