But the society has also warned that a worrying lack of information about the situation in Eastern Europe must be urgently addressed. Published in the Annals of Oncology this week, the survey provides the first detailed information on the current number of medical oncologists in 12 European Union countries, mostly in Western Europe, and their predicted availability by 2020. Around the world countries are struggling to ensure their medical oncology systems can deal with the increase in cancer cases, says ESMO Press Officer Solange Peters, a lung cancer expert from the university of Lausanne, Switzerland. Until now, nobody could say what the situation was in Europe. …

Most common gene mutation in human pigmentation in Mediterranean countries linked to increased skin cancer

This mutation, called "V60L," is at present the most common among people from Mediterranean regions such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Israel. It is present in about 10-20% of the population, according to the study carried out by researchers at the Universitat Jaume I and the University of the Basque Country performed on over 1,000 individuals from different areas of Spain. …

Head, neck cancer trial shows assessing HRQOL is valuable to patients, doctors

EORTC trial 24954 set out to compare two treatment schemes for patients with resectable hypopharyngeal and laryngeal cancers, and the results published in Cancer show that there is a trend towards worse HRQOL scores in patients receiving alternating chemoradiotherapy (Alternating arm) as opposed to those given sequential induction chemotherapy and radiotherapy (Sequential arm). However, very few differences reached the level of statistical significance, and most patients’ HRQOL scores returned to baseline once treatment was completed. Dr. …