Motivated by stunning projections regarding the rise of cancer cases globally to 25 million cases in 2035 with 70% of those occurring in low- and middle- income countries, coupled with the paucity of access to radiotherapy treatment – an essential component of curative and palliative care – a group of individuals from the International Cancer Expert Corps (ICEC), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC UK), CERN and others, took on the challenge to meet the demands for cancer care focusing on the need to develop a medical linear accelerator to be used in resource-limited settings.  Read the Editorial in Clinical Oncology

ICEC’s Senior Scientific Advisor, Dr. C. Norman Coleman, received the Ellen L. Stovall Award for Innovation in Patient-Centered Cancer Care. The award recognizes exceptional providers who are transforming cancer care.

The Stovall Award is awarded annually to individuals, organizations, or other entities who demonstrate innovation in improving cancer care for patients in America. NCCS created the Stovall Award in honor of Ellen Stovall, NCCS’ longtime CEO who passed away in 2016 due to cardiac complications from her cancer treatment.  Read more…

Cancers linked to the human papillomavirus have increased significantly over the last 15 years in the United States, with throat cancer now the most common HPV-related malignancy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. More than 43,000 people developed HPV-associated cancer in 2015, compared with about 30,000 in 1999, the CDC said.

At the same time, the CDC said, HPV vaccination rates are rising — a trend that could eventually curb the increase in cancer cases  — But the rate is not rising fast enough, experts say. Nearly half of adolescents ages 13 to 17 in 2017 had received all the recommended doses for HPV vaccination, while two-thirds had received the first dose. Read the Washington Post article…

This is a challenge for those in Low-Income Countries LIC and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) as well.  Gallagher, K. et al, in Vaccine, “Status of HPV vaccine introduction and barriers to country uptake” suggest that if one-dose HPV vaccination became viable, some of the significant barriers to scale-up and sustained use in LIC/LMIC may be overcome. (Perhaps the same for Upper-Income Countries?) The vaccine could prevent 90 percent of HPV-caused cancer cases every year.

Excellent new blog series on radiotherapy by Cancer Research UK provides a broad overview of radiotherapy treatment for cancer, tracing back to its roots in the 19th Century to how it’s used today. The online blog incorporates easy to understand videos chronicling radiotherapy through decades of research to refine, improve and innovate the treatment. Today radiotherapy has become an incredibly sophisticated and precise technique that cures more people than cancer drugs. Access the blog: An introduction to radiotherapy: what is it, how does it work, and what’s it for? and watch the video, “What is cancer radiotherapy and how does it work?”