We are now able to announce that EONS13 will take place as a virtual event on 19, 20 and 21 September, rather than in Madrid as planned.

We are delighted to announce that in the opening session of EONS13, the Chief Nurse of WHO Elizabeth Iro (pictured) will talk about what ‘2020 The Year of the Nurse and Midwife’ means for the cancer nurse and the European Commission’s Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Nicolas Schmit, will provide highlights about Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the role his directorate plays in regulating occupational safety, especially cytotoxics and mutagens and ensuring workforce skills and capacity.
In the Nursing Track, you will have the opportunity to strengthen your knowledge of Phase 1 clinical trials, and learn how they relate to your patients, about immunotherapy, age-specific care in oncology, quality and safety in cancer nursing, evolving cancer nursing roles, supporting informal care givers like parents and significant others, the patient experience, and much more! This groundbreaking virtual conference, with its packed programme will be a valuable opportunity to advance your learning and skills and boost your career – and it’s FREE to EONS Individual Members! Don’t miss it!
Register and find out more

“NutriCaNurse” is the latest EONS education project. Malnutrition affects more than 50% of cancer patients and is present in more than 80% of patients with advanced disease or metastasis. It is extremely important to establish early nutritional interventions to prevent or minimise situations that can affect the nutritional status of cancer patients. A well-nourished cancer patient has better tolerance to treatment, better quality of life, fewer side effects/toxicities related to cancer treatment and, therefore, enhanced adherence to treatments. Cancer nurses have a pivotal role in the prevention and recognition of malnutrition as well as in the management of situations that might require nutritional support.
EONS recognises the importance of nutrition role in cancer nursing. To address the educational needs of cancer nurses, EONS is developing a new webinar which will address:

In addition, a short practical guide will be written. It will be available both in print and for download as a PDF. Stay tuned for more information coming this autumn!
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This new edition of target has been developed to give nurses a better understanding of the characteristics associated with cancer development and how targeted therapies have improved patient outcomes by inhibiting or manipulating these. Offering a target course through your society, interest group or institution, you will be giving nurses one of the best possible courses to understand this dynamically growing treatment area and will give them the knowledge to improve care and support for patients and their caregivers. The updated materials are available upon application to EONS individuals, Associate or National Society members who wish to organise a target course in their own country.

Additionally, EONS invites national oncology nursing societies/institutions to apply for financial support if they wish to translate the updated 2020 target materials.

For more information and to apply
https://www.cancernurse.eu/education/eons-education-projects/

Almost 100 applications have been received for this Masterclass. Unfortunately, only 30 places are available, so the EEBR Masterclass faculty had a hard task in selecting the applicants for this year’s Masterclass. The list of selected applicants will be available soon on the EONS website. We would like to encourage all those not selected this time, to apply again for the next EEBR Masterclass, which will be advertised in due course.
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Don’t miss the latest issue of EJON: The European Journal of Oncology Nursing is an international journal which publishes research of direct relevance to patient care, nurse education, management and policy development. As an EONS member you can read it free.
Sign up to read the journal free

EONS has worked hard over recent months to refresh and modernise its website – www.cancernurse.eu and the new site was launched on ECND2020 on 18 May. We hope you like the new website, designed to be more attractive and easy for EONS members to use, and packed with all the usual high quality information and resources about cancer nursing – plus lots of new initiatives and tools. It will be further developed with more information and resources over the coming months.

On September 24th and 25th, EONS representatives of the Advocacy Working Group are due to present the results of the Safety Survey that has now been answered by nearly 400 cancer nurses from every region in Europe. The Conference on Workers’ Protection from Exposure to Hazardous Medicinal Products will be an opportunity to inform the European Commission about the results of the EONS Safety Survey, Cancer Nursing Index and advocate for firm regulation to protect cancer nurses in the workplace. EONS members in Poland, the Netherlands and Spain have also been taking part in national workshops run by researchers working on behalf of DG Employment to inform the amendment of the Cytotoxic Mutagens Directive for this purpose. We will bring you more information on the Conference and its outcomes later in the year.

On 18 June, the European Parliament voted to set up a Special Committee on Cancer which will try and ensure that policies are mutually consistent on cancer, looking at actions to strengthen the approach at every key stage of the disease: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, life as a cancer survivor and palliative care.
EONS welcomes this decision and is looking forward to collaborating with the Committee by providing scientific knowledge and expertise to reduce the burden of cancer in Europe. The Committee will be formed of 33 MEPs with an initial duration of 12 months (potentially to be extended) and will act according to the adopted terms of reference.
In 2019, A Cancer Mission Board was established by DG GROW with the aim to reduce the burden of cancer across Europe. The Board recently released Conquering Cancer – Mission possible, an interim report which proposes 13 recommendations to prevent cancers, optimise diagnostics and treatment and support quality of life during and after survivorship. The Mission sets the basis for developing synergies with national cancer plans and other actions of Members States under the Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027), and is an essential and fundamental element in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

The revision of the European Union’s landmark piece of legislation for tobacco control is up for review next year. The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has expressed concern about the stepping up of lobbying in Brussels by the tobacco industry in their new report, Smoke and Mirrors. As signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the European Commission is legally obliged to keep meetings with the industry to an absolute minimum, but as CEO states ‘The Commission pro-actively discloses the lobby meetings of European Commissioners, their cabinets and the directors-general (approximately top-300 Commission officials). These meetings are spread across European Commission websites, but can be searched via the NGO platforms integritywatch.eu and lobbyfacts.eu. These searches reveal that the top of the Commission since 2017 has had seven lobby meetings with tobacco industry lobbyists; all with tobacco giants Philip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT), as well as a consultancy representing BAT. But this is only the tip of the iceberg: far more lobbying contacts happen with Commission officials just below the top level, and the majority of these meetings are not listed.’

The survey has been a joint initiative by the Advanced Breast Cancer Global Alliance, the World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition, the Lymphoma Coalition, the World Pancreatic Cancer Coalition and the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition. The aim was to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on cancer patient organisations around the world, and the patients you all serve with the aim to create a set of common messages about the importance of our organisations and the vital role you have been playing, but also to highlight the challenges faced in the current climate together with good and innovative practice. Responses were received from 157 member organisations located in 56 countries. Most of the responses came from the USA (28 responses) followed by Australia (10), and then Canada, Italy, and the UK (8 each). The report has now been published on the ABC Alliance website in the Covid-19 and Cancer page.

Taking into consideration the results of the survey, the ABC Alliance has also united with 7 other global cancer coalitions and alliances, representing 650 patient advocacy and other cancer organizations and the interests of over 14 million patients around the world, to create a Statement to call for a global plan of action for cancer to meet the challenges of future pandemics or health crises. It is important both at a global and national level to work together to ensure that we regain the ground that has been lost to the COVID-19 pandemic and one of the key messages is to encourage those who are living with cancer to continue treatment and those with concerns about symptoms to visit their primary health care providers as soon as possible.

The ESMO Resilience Task Force, in collaboration with the ESMO Young Oncologists Committee, the ESMO Women for Oncology Committee, ESMO Leaders Generation Programme Alumni members and also the OncoAlert network have planned a series of global surveys to evaluate how oncologists and other oncology professionals are affected by the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing changes to routine practices, well-being and current levels of support available over time.
Over 1500 oncology professionals across 120 countries contributed to the first survey launched in April 2020. Analyses are underway and will be available soon. Some findings are already available. Six months since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, we are at a point where countries/regions are experiencing the ‘recovery phase’, lockdown, first or subsequent surges.

This second survey focuses on the current ‘normal’ for oncology professionals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an opportunity to assess the longer term impact of COVID-19 across global regions.

Complete the Survey:
https://www.esmo.org/covid-19-and-cancer/collaborating-on-registries-studies-and-surveys