When a person finds out that they have cancer, they are shocked and confused. For the oncologist to answer all the questions of one patient, the appointment must last more than two hours. American oncologists have proposed a solution to this problem: guidelines for each type of cancer separately. A patient who first encountered the diagnosis can download the booklet for free and find out what exactly his cancer is, what lifestyle needs to be led, what changes will occur in the body, which doctors should be contacted and what questions to ask them.
In August, the Outpatient Oncology and Hematology Clinic and the Living Foundation presented the first results of a project to translate guidelines into Russian by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a reputable non-profit organization uniting 28 leading American cancer centers.
The project was initiated two years ago by the head of the Clinic of Outpatient Oncology and Hematology, oncologist Mikhail Laskov. To date, four guidelines are ready and verified:
● for patients with stomach cancer,
● bowel cancer,
● and non-small cell lung cancer – early stages and metastatic.
You can download guides for cancer patients free of charge on the website of the Living Foundation.
The translation of 15 more guidelines is planned. The charity program “Women’s Health” has joined the work, they will take on three more guides – for patients with breast cancer.
Project initiator – Mikhail Laskov, oncologist, hematologist, PhD,
the head of the Clinic of Outpatient Oncology and Hematology says: “I have known the charity sphere for a long time. And I understand that targeted assistance – fees for the benefit of specific people – for all its importance, does not change the situation as a whole. We need system projects.
At some point, I realized that at each consultation 30 minutes out of an hour is spent debunking dozens of myths that the patient has learned from the Internet. I say that a biopsy is not scary, drinking herbs sent by someone from China is not worth it, there will be no cancer from one computed tomography.
At the same time, there are long-known, reliable and proven sources. There are three organizations in the world whose guidelines are used in their work by all modern oncologists: NCCN, ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology), ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology). At first, they created such manuals only for doctors, but over time they began to produce materials for patients as well.
Therefore, I decided to launch a project to translate patient manuals and found support from the Zhivoi Foundation. I believe that this is one of the most correct initiatives in terms of the balance of resources invested and potential benefits. ”
The project was funded by private and corporate donations to the Living Foundation. You can help the fund on their website.