HIGHLIGHTS FROM 11TH EAPC WORLD RESEARCH CONGRESS ONLINE
One of several Open Meetings held during the recent EAPC World Research Congress Online enabled palliative care specialists to find out more about the work of the Innovative Partnership for Innovation Against Cancer (iPAAC). Alessandra Pigni and Augusto Caraceni, National Cancer Institute of Milan, Italy, and members of iPAAC, explain more.
Dr Alessandra Pigni and Professor Augusto Caraceni.
On 7 October 2020, the Joint Action of the European Commission, Innovative Partnership for Innovation Against Cancer (iPAAC), held a workshop at the 11th EAPC World Research Congress Online, entitled ‘iPAAC) meets EAPC: Pain control and palliative care. Integration from iPAAC work package on Challenges in Cancer Care’.
But what exactly is iPAAC?
iPAAC is a Joint Action (JA) of the European Commission that brings together several partners from across Europe. iPAAC’s main objectives are to build on the previous European guide of the Cancer Control Joint Action (CANCON), and implement specific recommendations and a roadmap on innovative approaches to cancer control. The innovation covered within the JA consists of further development of cancer prevention, comprehensive approaches to the use of genomics in cancer control, cancer information and registries, improvements and challenges in cancer care, mapping of innovative cancer treatments and governance of integrated cancer control, including a new analysis of National Cancer Control Plans.
Within the work package aimed at tackling challenges in improving the quality of cancer care, two tasks focus on pain and palliative care with the following specific topics:
- the need for pain control, reviewing data on pain prevalence;
- prevalence of uncontrolled pain;
- barriers to adequate pain management, also among cancer survivors;
- use of patient-reported outcomes in increasing patient-centred decision-making;
- palliative care needs;
- review of models of integration between palliative care and oncology;
- priority of early access to palliative care in oncology.
The workshop was organised to share and discuss these topics with the palliative care community. It included the contribution of four rapporteurs:
- Cinzia Brunelli, National Cancer Institute of Milan: PROMs and their use in patient- centred decision-making from theory to implementation.
- Alessandra Pigni, National Cancer Institute of Milan, iPAAC: Pain prevalence and impact in palliative and survivorship cancer care.
- Augusto Caraceni, National Cancer Institute of Milan, iPAAC: Integration of palliative care with oncology within a patient-centred decision-making approach.
- Jacqueline Daly, the European Cancer Patient Coalition – ECPC: Palliative care: What matters to patients at the end of their life.
There were also presentations from representatives of the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes – OECI (Tiina Saarto) and theInternational Association for the Study of Pain – IASP (Elizabeth Ogboli Nwasor), followed by a general discussion with contributions from the chairs, Josep M Borras (iPAAC Coordinator) and Christoph Ostgathe (EAPC President).
In the discussion, particular emphasis was placed on the importance of early recourse to palliative care, on patient involvement in decision-making and on the need for palliative care to be considered as an integral part of cancer care and cancer control strategies.
If you are interested in learning more about iPAAC, please consult the website. And if you haven’t heard the speakers’ presentations yet, please visit our workshop here! (You will need to login and access is restricted to congress registrants only.
Everyone who registered for the congress has access to the four iPAAC presentations – and all the congress content – until 31 January 2021.
Links
- Contact Alessandra Pigni by email.
- Contact Augusto Caraceni by email.
- iPAAC website.
- Access iPAAC sessions at #EAPC2020 here. (Or login via the EAPC website). Choose the ‘Exhibition’ or ‘On Demand’ tab and search for iPAAC. (Access is restricted to congress registrants only).
Read more posts relating to the 11th EAPC World Research Congress Online here and view selected video presentations on the EAPC YouTube channel here. (Available to all of our readers).
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