International Childhood Cancer Day event at the European Parliament
SIOP Europe (SIOPE) marked International Childhood Cancer Day on 7 February 2012 at the European Parliament to raise awareness of child and adolescent cancer. Hosted by Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Mrs. Glenis Willmott (UK), this event involves a range of stakeholders involved in paediatric oncology and health policy issues to debate the many challenges childhood cancer presents and to jointly find a political pathway to instigate change.
Thanks to pan-European partnerships and quality-assured clinical care, the treatment of children with cancer can be considered a success story today, with approximately 80% of young cancer patients surviving in Europe. Childhood cancer is nevertheless a rare, non-preventable and life-threatening disease; treatments are complex and require specialist input in order to counter long-term effects and provide a good quality-of-life for the increasing number of survivors.
The revision of the EU Clinical Trials Directive, the EU Paediatric Regulation and earlier diagnosis campaigns will be discussed, particularly improved diagnosis of paediatric brain tumours.
For further information on the event, please contact the SIOPE office at office<at>siope.eu (please replace <at> with @)
1 February 2012
World Cancer Day - “Together let’s do something”
World Cancer Day takes place every year on 4 February and is the sole initiative under which the entire world can unite together in the fight against the rising cancer epidemic. Every month 600,000 people die from the disease and it is believed that such high figures could be avoided with increased government support and funding for prevention and treatment programmes.
According to Professor Andreas Ullrich, Medical Officer Cancer Control Department at the World Health Organisation, “World Cancer Day is a reminder to us all to take action against the increasing burden of cancer as cancer cases are projected to almost double by 2030”.
This year’s theme revolves around unity, as the scale of the cancer epidemic requires a global response. It is a disease that knows no boundaries and has, or will affect us all directly or indirectly during our lifetime.
It is therefore of great importance to create awareness in order to decrease the burden of cancer. It is only by every person, organisation, and government individually doing their part that this can be achieved on a global scale.
Join the action and spread the word. Visit http://www.worldcancerday.org/ and download the toolkit.
31 January 2012
BTOC11 postponed until March 2013
It is with regret that the committee announces that the BTOC11 - the International Symposium on the Biological Therapy of Cancer has been postponed until March 2013. Further details will be given at a later date.
24 January 2012
A second chance to influence the Clinical Trials Directive
The European Commission has given its clearest indication yet of likely changes to the EU law governing clinical trials. Academia and the medical community is mobilising to make its voice heard as the Commission moves to fill in the detail.
The 2001 clinical trials directive is one of the most sharply-criticised pieces of pharmaceutical legislation in the history of the EU, blamed for increasing the costs of pan-European trial costs and adding to the burden of red tape. Having charted the drop in multi-national clinical trials conducted in Europe since 2007, the Commission's health directorate (DG Sanco), finally conceded the law has played a part in the decline, at a gathering of MEPs, academics, patient associations and industry at the European Parliament in December 2011.
Figures presented by the head of the pharmaceuticals unit in at DG Sanco, Patricia Brunko, showed the number of trials fell from 5028 in 2007 to 3490 in 2011. This 30% drop "could well be [due to] the current approach of the directive," she told the meeting.
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11 January 2012