Volume 2, Number 1

P Hunt, N Murtagh, H Barrett, D Laverty, D Lowrie, A Stevens Department of Palliative Care, The Royal Marsden Hospital, Fulham and Sutton

In the past decade, there has been new and exciting research to assist healthcare professionals in helping cancer patients to manage their breathlessness.1–3 As well as highlighting it as a distressing symptom, this research has emphasised the subjective experience and personal meaning of breathlessness for an individual. It is increasingly seen as a problem where there is a ‘complex interplay of physical, psychological, emotional and functional factors’.4

Michael D Peake MB ChB FRCP Consultant Physician and Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine, Thoracic Oncology Unit, Glenfield Hospital, Leicester

The British Thoracic Oncology Group (BTOG) is a national, multiprofessional, scientific organisation bringing together individuals and groups involved in the clinical and research aspects of lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. Its annual meeting was held in Dublin from 26 to 29 January 2005.

Kenneth J O’Byrne MD MRCPI Consultant Oncologist, St James’s Hospital, Dublin

Cigarette smoking among women has increased so dramatically in recent decades that the mortality from lung cancer now exceeds that from breast cancer in most Western countries. As lung cancer will remain a significant problem for the foreseeable future, every effort must be made to improve the efficacy of existing treatment approaches and to devise novel ones.

Michael D Peake, Editor

The publication in February this year of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer is a major milestone in the history of the management of this disease in the UK. The key recommendations are summarised within this issue of Lung Cancer in Practice. We need to use these guidelines at every opportunity to ensure that the standard of care in all of our units is of the very best. Where there are deficiencies, the guidelines should be used to argue the case either for service redesign or increased resources.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care (NCC-AC) issued guidance for the NHS in England and Wales for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in February 2005.1 This guideline also updates the NICE technology appraisal guidance No. 26 on the use of docetaxel, paclitaxel, gemcitabine and vinorelbine for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), first published in 2001.2

Jesme Baird MB ChB MBA Director of Patient Care, The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Steering Group Member, The European Cancer Patient Coalition

In September 2003, nine cancer patient charities from seven EU countries came together and launched the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC). It now has 96 member organisations from 13 EU countries and is growing rapidly.

David R Ferry PhD FRCP Professor of Medical Oncology, New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton

Jesme Baird (The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation) presented data from a patient study (n=62); 83% felt the doctor and patient should make key treatment decisions together, 7% felt the doctor alone should decide, and 6% felt the patient should decide.