Psycho-Oncology
Psycho-Oncology 23 (Suppl. 3): 1–2 (2014)
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1111/j.1099-1611.2014.3691
Abstracts of the IPOS 16th World Congress
of Psycho-Oncology and Psychosocial Academy, 20-24
October 2014, Lisbon, Portugal
PLENARY SESSIONS
“Cancer Care for the Whole Patient”: A Progress
Report
Paul Jacobsen
Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute,
Tampa, Florida, USA
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an independent,
non-governmental organization that is part of the
United States National Academies. Its role is to
provide authoritative and unbiased advice to deci-
sion makers and the public and views its mission as
asking and answering the nation’s most pressing
questions about health and health care. The IOM
usually provides advice in the form of detailed
reports assembled by experts and externally
reviewed prior to publication. In addition to pro-
viding evidence summaries, most reports include
specific recommendations designed to address the
issues that have been identified. With regard to
oncology, recent IOM reports have called attention
to and offered recommendations about such impor-
tant issues as the need to measure and improve the
quality of cancer care and the need to address the
issues of cancer survivors.In 2007, the IOM
released a report titled “Cancer Care for the Whole
Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs.”
Since that time the report has been widely dissemi-
nated and referenced in over 250 publications. It is
credited by many with drawing attention to the
demonstrated benefits of psychosocial care for peo-
ple with cancer but also to the common failure of
health care systems to address the psychosocial
needs of people with cancer. To address this short-
coming, the report included a set of recommenda-
tions designed to make consideration of
psychosocial needs an integral part of cancer car-
e.This presentation will summarize the recommen-
dations contained in the IOM report and describe
areas where considerable progress has been made
(e.g., establishing standards for cancer care that
include psychosocial services) as well as areas where
progress has been limited (e.g., improving
reimbursement for psychosocial services). It will
conclude with a reconsideration of the recommen-
dations based on developments since 2007.
© 2014 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Psychosocial Guidelines – The Australian
Experience
Jane Turner
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Inquiries in Australia in the 1990’s demonstrated
disparities in the care of women with breast cancer.
Two initiatives followed: development of Clinical
Practice Guidelines for the Management of Early
Breast Cancer, and establishment of a Govern-
ment-funded Centre to improve outcomes through
implementation of these Guidelines. Community
and professional support provided the impetus for
the Centre to then develop Psychosocial Clinical
Practice Guidelines: Information, Support and
Counselling for Women with Breast Cancer,
launched in 1999.Using this template, Clinical Prac-
tice Guidelines for the Psychosocial Care of Adults
with Cancer were launched in 2003, supplemented
with a consumer version: Cancer: How Are You
Travelling? Revision and updating of Guidelines is
time-consuming and since 2011, Cancer Australia
has convened working groups to identify focal
areas of new research which can form the basis of
recommendations to supplement, rather than com-
pletely revise the Psychosocial Guidelines. The cur-
rent focus is on two topics: Suffering and Fear of
Recurrence. In addition, PoCoG is currently devel-
oping guidance about clinical pathways for
responding to patients identified as depressed or
anxious.Attitudes towards psychosocial care have
shifted considerably since the first Guidelines were
developed. Chapters on psychosocial care are now
routinely included in Clinical Practice Guidelines
such as for Malignant Brain Tumours, or
Advanced Breast Cancer. Health services and pro-
fessional organisations have implemented compo-
nents of the Psychosocial Guidelines ranging from
communication skills training to routine screening
for distress and development of educational initia-
tives. Formation of the Psycho-Oncology Coopera-
tive Research Group (PoCoG) has enhanced the
profile of psychosocial research in Australia, and
the multidisciplinary Clinical Oncology Society of
Australia (COSA) provides a forum for promotion
of psychosocial care.This presentation will provide
an overview of the foundation Psychosocial Guide-
lines and the information provided in the supple-
2 Joint Symposium Abstracts of the IPOS 16th World Congress
mentary topics. Details will be provided about clini-
cal and research initiatives to implement the Psy-
chosocial Guidelines into routine care in Australia.
It will include discussion about an initiative of
Cancer Australia to establish a national framework
for best-practice screening and develop a national
consensus on resources required to integrate psy-
chosocial care into clinical practice.Large-scale
evaluations of the impact of psychosocial care on
patient outcomes, in particular in relation to cost-
benefits, are lacking. A recent multi-site RCT of a
brief psychosocial intervention for depressed cancer
patients delivered by front-line health professionals
failed to demonstrate improvements in mood, high-
lighting the complexity of designing and evaluating
“real world” interventions.Although psychosocial
care is increasingly recognised as a fundamental
aspect of good clinical practice, at a national level
there is room for the development of policy and
performance indicators to improve services.
Future Cancer Research Focusing on Societal Issues
Confronting Cancer Survivors of Today
Elizabeth Moser
EORTC, Brussels, Belgium
Over the past several decades, survival rates of can-
cer patients have increased impressively due to early
diagnosis, new drugs and more personalized multi-
modality treatments. In the wake of this success,
new concerns and issues have arisen. Many cancer
patients become cancer survivors who want to
return to a normal life, one with good quality,
appropriate insurance, and gainful employment.
However, these cancer survivors are frequently
excluded from insurance, mortgages and career
improvement.My talk focuses on future research
perspectives focusing on societal issues confronting
cancer survivors, insurance and finance, part of the
EORTC survivorship research program.I would
like to discuss the viewpoints of the banking and
insurance industries as well as of patient advocates
incorporated in the EORTC strategy in future can-
cer research.View research projects are focused on
education and financial consequences of cancer car-
e.By combining different efforts and facilitate com-
munication across survivorship initiatives such
research could benefit the multiple cancer survivor-
ship stakeholders in the near future as well as the
social system on a European level.With more infor-
© 2014 The Authors. Psycho-Oncology © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
mation, hopefully, more cancer patients can be bet-
ter guided in future. Better awareness of treatment
impact can also probably change the standard
approach of employers, bankers and insurers in
future.EORTC Survivorship initiative is funded by
the Snowman foundation.
IPOS 30th Anniversary Plenary, Lisbon, 16th World
Congress
Chair: David Kissane, President of the IPOS Coun-
cil of Past Presidents
Speakers: Jimmie Holland, Lea Baider, Uwe Koch,
David Kissane, Christoffer Johansen, Luigi Grassi,
William Breitbart, Maggie Watson & Barry Bultz
The story of the development of the International
Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) across the past
30 years will be told by nine of IPOS’s past presi-
dents alongside the unfolding story of the growth
of our discipline. Our early history starts with psy-
chotherapy for the dying, delivered by Loma Fei-
genberg at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm
in the 1940s, and spreads to seminal studies of the
impact of mastectomy, colostomy and treatments
for leukemia, led by Arthur Sutherland at Memo-
rial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York in
the 1950s. The development of the British Psycho-
Oncology Society (1983), the American Psycho-
Oncology Society (1984) and IPOS (1984) heralded
the clear emergence of our discipline. The 1st IPOS
World Congress was held in France in 1992, and
Congresses settled into a biannual pattern until
2006, when they became annual events. Clinical
studies focused on coping, the couple and family,
and the effects of group therapy, while epidemio-
logical studies examined social myths about the
impact of stress and personality on the onset of
cancer. Communication skills training, clinical
genetics and meaning-centered interventions have
further matured the discipline, while distress has
become recognised as the 6th vital sign. IPOS has
conducted skill-based educational academies to
build clinical and research skills for its membership.
The WHO has recognized IPOS as an official Non-
Government Organization working to promote
psychosocial care. With its journals, textbooks,
Human rights Task Force and Federation of
National Societies, IPOS celebrates the ever grow-
ing contribution of our discipline to global cancer
care.
Psycho-Oncology 23 (Suppl. 3): 1–2 (2014)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1099-1611.2014.3691