LONDON - International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) Congress,, September 17 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Educational Tool Launched to Improve Healthcare Professional - 
Patient Communications in Cancer Care

Oncology, pain and communications experts from across Europe
are today launching an innovative new educational workbook, entitled 'Cancer
Tales': Communicating in cancer care, which combines real-life patient
experiences of cancer with practical guidance to improve communication.

The workbook takes a completely new approach to healthcare
professional education: it is based around a highly emotive play, Cancer
Tales, written by Nell Dunn, which tells the stories of real cancer patients
and their families. The book combines these real-life patient experiences
with practical guidance to improve communication between healthcare
professionals, patients and their carers. The dialogue in each original scene
from the play is used to illustrate a particular communication issue,
including diagnosis, discussions about disease progression and anxiety about
examinations and treatment procedures. These issues are addressed through
detailed chapters which provide advice, guidance and practical exercises
designed to create an understanding of the impact of communication and to
improve the interaction between healthcare professionals and their patients.

The workbook has been endorsed by Lance Armstrong, cancer
survivor and founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, who says, "Often
patients have many questions that remain unanswered, leaving them and their
families more anxious than necessary during an already difficult time. I hope
that this workbook will strike a chord with the medical profession to help
them stop and consider the way they explain diagnosis, treatment, prognosis
and living with cancer to their patients,"

The need for more effective communication in the management of
cancer emerged in the recent European Pain in Cancer (EPIC) survey(1), which
showed that most of those cancer patients questioned in depth had to
proactively raise the subject of pain with their healthcare professional,
with nearly a quarter stating that their healthcare professional never or
only rarely asked about their pain.(1) Furthermore, of those patients in
moderate to severe pain, one in five were not receiving treatment for their
pain.(1)

"Palliative Care cannot be measured out like a medicine. Each
patient is an individual and communication is vital in order to establish the
care that is needed in each case. The Cancer Tales workbook not only
emphasises this need but demonstrates ways in which to meet it." commented
Hilary Hollis formerly from the Royal Marsden School of Cancer Nursing and
Rehabilitation, Royal Marsden Hospital, London.

Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care is available online at
http://www.cancertales.org or a hard copy may be requested from
info@cancertales.org.

Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care was supported by an
educational grant from Mundipharma International Ltd, Cambridge, England

Notes to Editors

Available materials:

- Key facts from the EPIC survey

- Quotes in support of Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care

- Lance Armstrong's foreword to Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer
care

- Hard copies of both Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care and
Cancer Tales, the original play

About the Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care

Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care consists of 39
chapters covering a number of topics ranging from dealing with mastectomy,
the withdrawal of curative treatment, patient autonomy and rights, the impact
of cancer pain and survivorship. The workbook is targeted at all medical
professionals involved in the management of cancer, including primary care
and specialist nurses, general practitioners and secondary care physicians,
and it is hoped that the workbook will be used as a core element of
educational programmes in future.

The workbook was developed under the auspices of the European
Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), the European Oncology Nursing Society
(EONS), Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and OpenMinds, with assistance and
guidance from an editorial board consisting of the following palliative care,
pain and communications experts:

- Dr Katri Elina Clemens, Head of the Department for Science and
Research, Centre for Palliative Medicine, Malteser Hospital Bonn /
Rhein-Sieg, University of Bonn, Germany

- Dr Marilene Filbet, Chief, Palliative Care Unit, Centre
Hospitalo-Universitaire de Lyon, France; President, EAPC

- Dr Jan Foubert, Senior Lecturer, Association VUB / Erasmushogeschool,
Brussels, Belgium; Immediate Past-President EONS

- Dr Michael Fridrik, Head of Department of Internal Medicine, Center for
Hematology and Medical Oncology, AKH-Linz, Austria

- Hilary Hollis, Programme Leader, Royal Marsden School of Cancer Nursing
and Rehabilitation, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK

- Dr Patricia Macnair, medical journalist and broadcaster, UK

- Professor Furio Zucco, Director of Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive
Care, Palliative Care, Pain Therapy, Hospice and Hospital at home, Azienda
Ospedaliera G.Salvini, Garbagnate Mil.se (Milan), Italy; President, Italian
Society of Palliative Care.

Special contributions to the workbook were provided by
Professor Sam H Ahmedzai, Dr Susie Wilkinson, Lee Zimmer, and Trevor Walker.

About Cancer Tales

Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care is adapted from the
original play based on real life experiences of those with cancer and their
families and carers, written by Nell Dunn and directed by Trevor Walker.

A performance of the original Cancer Tales play is taking
place at the IPOS Congress to an audience of key palliative care experts,
physicians, patient groups and governmental spokespeople. An abstract on the
development of Cancer Tales: Communicating in cancer care has previously been
accepted and presented at the EAPC congress, 7 July 2007.

References

(1) European Pain in Cancer survey, data on file:
http://www.EPICsurvey.com