2020    Earlier this fall, the European Cancer Organisation launched the European Code of Cancer Practice (The Code), a patient-centered initiative which identifies 10 key patient rights that underpin the delivery of good clinical cancer practice. The Code was created to improve patient survival and quality of life. The rights signpost what all cancer patients should expect from their health system and addresses inequalities in access to optimal high-quality cancer treatment and care. The initiative also highlights the need for public information about cancer, survivorship support, integrated cancer research, and innovative access to optimal high-quality cancer treatment and care.

2017    MASCC members Paul Jacobsen (Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Florida) and Irma Verdonck-de Leeuw (VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) were among the many collaborators on a large-scale meta-analysis (Buffart et al., 2017) designed to evaluate the effects of exercise on quality of life and physical function in adult cancer patients.¹ The study also aimed to determine the extent to which demographic, clinical, exercise, and other intervention-related variables moderated the main effects. The analysis included 34 randomized controlled trials that involved more than 4,500 adult cancer patients and that evaluated the effects of exercise on quality of life and physical function. Exercise was found to significantly improve both quality of life and physical function. These effects were unaffected by differences in demographic, clinical, and exercise variables, such as age, sex, education level, marital status, BMI, cancer type, metastatic stage, and treatment. Also, exercise was equally effective during and following cancer treatment.

2015    It is well known that chemotherapy-induced symptoms, including peripheral neuropathy, often lead to the reduction or premature discontinuation of drug dosages in a large proportion of patients. This can mean that patients receive significantly less chemotherapy. The taxanes, paclitaxel and docetaxel, are one class of chemotherapeutic drugs with this effect.

2015    The year 2014 marked the 40th anniversary of the International Association of the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), a global organization that works to enhance the understanding of lung cancer among scientists, members of the medical community, and the public.* MASCC and IASLC frequently collaborate to address the challenges of lung cancer, its symptoms, including cough and breathlessness, and their management. The new MASCC Respiratory Study Group has identified breathlessness as its first priority for developing evidence-based guidelines.