In the Spotlight

Despite some share the concern of having their career plans delayed or disrupted by the pandemic, the new challenges emerged in these unprecedented times represent a unique opportunity to grow-up as oncology professionals and get ready to a new scenario where team working, humanisation of care and virtual education will be more crucial than ever.

Sex- and gender-sensitive medicine postulates that differences in biological sex, gender identity, role and relations all impact health and disease, and may have implications for prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment. Its goal is to learn from these differences to improve care and treatment for men and women.

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) are battery-powered products that create an aerosol by heating a liquid consisting of propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin and flavouring agents. The liquid may or may not (but usually does) contain nicotine, at variable doses. Differently from conventional cigarettes, there is no combustion of tobacco in ENDS, thus making people think they cause less harm. However, the varying voltage that is applied to the liquid creates a mixture of potentially toxic substances in the aerosols that are then inhaled by users.

In cancer research, academy and industry still work in silos but there is room for improvement, and more successful partnership can rise from an in-depth acknowledgement of needs, shared area of interests and drivers for change. A very first step towards this direction has been taken by the Clinical Academic Cancer Research Forum (CAREFOR) – a multi-stakeholder platform aiming to improve academic cancer research in Europe – which conducted an analysis of current models, challenges and effective strategies for academic-industry research together with selected industry representatives.  The paper, which has been recently published on ESMO Open, (1) is a call to action to all oncology communities to join their efforts. Commenting on the paper, Professor Eric Van Cutsem from University of Leuven, Belgium, shares his perspectives on how investing in collaborative trials may be strategic for the benefit of patients.

The intriguing possibility that altering the microbiome might offer a way of augmenting response to immunotherapy is one of the pioneering new treatment options being explored in oncology.

TAT 2020 Honorary Award recipient Lillian L. Siu, Professor at the University of Toronto and Medical Oncologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, explains the latest progress being made in using ‘bugs as drugs’.