Good news about cancer

1. Population screening, targeted therapy and emergency clinics: developments in the care of patients with cancer are ongoing. Hans Gelderblom of the Leiden University Medical Center tells the latest good news.

1. Prof. Hans Gelderblom is professor of internal medicine â € “in particular Experimental Oncological Pharmacotherapy â €“ at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). He is also chairman of the Dutch Society for Medical Oncology.

Immunotherapy

1. Hans Gelderblom: "With immunotherapy you strengthen the patient's own defenses against the tumor. Ipilimumab has been on the market for two years against melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer. a metastatic melanoma was fatal. Ipilimumab suddenly cured one in five patients. A second drug, nivolumab, will arrive in 2015. A combination of these drugs provides a cure for half of the melanoma patients. That is a real breakthrough, they are very expensive resources, which is a thorn in our side, but we do want to use them. Immunotherapy will soon also be used for other types of cancer, such as lung and bladder cancer. More new drugs are coming with fewer side effects. We will also use them in high-risk patients, immediately after surgery, to reduce the chance of metastasis or to increase the chance of a cure. We are also developing combination treatments with targeted therapy and radiation. " Benefit for the patient: "It is a new type of treatment with great success in types of cancer that were previously untreatable."

'Targeted therapy' gaining momentum

1. Hans Gelderblom: "So-called 'targeted therapy' uses the unique properties of a tumor to determine why the tumor grows - they all do that slightly differently. take a biopsy of the tumor, watch it grow and then block the path to growth for a number of months to years We now know the unique growth properties of more than half of the tumors. For example, in melanoma there is a certain mutation (â € BRAFâ € ™); targeted therapy can extend life in this group of patients by up to eight months. There is also targeted therapy for prostate, colon, breast and lung cancer. We also know better and better in which patients the therapy is or is not useful.â € Benefit for the patient: "Some of the patients live longer thanks to these new treatments. We also know better for whom it does and does not work. As a result, fewer patients are burdened with a treatment that is meaningless for them."]

Better cancer care

1. Hans Gelderblom: "Cancer care is becoming more and more specialized. But how do you, as a patient, know for sure that you will end up with a doctor who has sufficient experience with your type of cancer? Agreements have now been made. The quality of doctors has recently been registered by the Dutch Institute of Clinical Auditing. Hospitals have also made mutual agreements about quality criteria that they must meet in order to be able to offer a certain treatment. 'Rare' care will therefore no longer take place in small hospitals . " Benefit for the patient: "You can trust that the hospital you are referred to has sufficient knowledge and experience."

2. Hans Gelderblom: "Cancer care is becoming more and more specialized. But how do you, as a patient, know for sure that you will end up with a doctor who has sufficient experience with your type of cancer? Agreements have now been made. The quality of doctors has recently been registered by the Dutch Institute of Clinical Auditing. Hospitals have also made agreements among themselves about quality criteria that they must meet in order to be able to offer a certain treatment. . " Benefit for the patient: "You can be confident that the hospital you are referred to has sufficient knowledge and experience."

Treat colon cancer faster thanks to screening

1. Hans Gelderblom: "The population screening for colorectal cancer was started in January 2014. As a result, a lot of intestinal tumors are found. The screening ensures that many tumors are detected at an earlier stage; they are often still small and metastases are less common. This makes the treatments more curative. " Benefit for the patient: "In the long run fewer people will die of colon cancer."

2. Hans Gelderblom: "The population screening for colorectal cancer was started in January 2014. As a result, a lot of intestinal tumors are found. still small and metastases are less common. This makes the treatments more curative. " Benefit for the patient: "In the long run fewer people will die of colon cancer."

Faster security in 'emergency clinic'

1. Hans Gelderblom: "More and more hospitals have a special rapid-diagnosis clinic for cancer. The patient is given all the necessary examinations in quick succession, often within one day. breast cancer this has already happened in many places, but now people can quickly get a biopsy and a diagnosis for many other types of cancer, but it takes a little longer for bone tumors. The project started in four hospitals: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, LUMC, Radboud UMC and UMC Utrecht. The website www.sneldiagnose.nu offers an overview of hospitals with such an outpatient clinic. "Advantage for the patient:" You spend as little time as possible in uncertainty about the diagnosis "