Oxford University Press offers to EAPC members 20% off on all the selected OUP titles.

For more information go to the special offer 'home page' at: http://www.oup.co.uk/promotions/medicine/websoceapc/

Best wishes,

EAPC head office

EPCRC research on cachexia - Seeking experts

Dear experts in cancer cachexia, dear leaders of societies involved in nutritional aspects of cancer, we cordially invite you to consider a contribution to the work of the EU-Consortium "European Palliative Care Research Collaborative (EPCRC)" on clinical practice guidelines for cachexia in cancer patients.

The European Palliative Care Research Collaborative (EPCRC) on improved treatment of pain, depression and fatigue through translational research consists of eight participating centres from six European countries (UK, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Norway). The collaborative receives EU funding for a 3 year period to cover the following aims:

1) To identify genes and genetic variation relevant for inter-individual variation in opioid responses and genetic variation that may identify patients at particular risk for developing cachexia.
2) To improve classification and assessment of pain, depression and cachexia by computer assisted approaches.
3) To combine the new knowledge of symptoms, genomics and assessment in an internet-based system for implementation of European evidence-based guidelines and
4) To develop a long lasting European Collaborative in palliative care cancer research.

Specific workpackages cover genetic markers, assessment and classification of cachexia as well as clinical practice guidelines on cachexia.

As leader of the workpackage on clinical practice guidelines we would like to ask you to support of our work in the next months and years.
This workpackage will draft guidelines, review drug treatment of cachexia and evaluate treatment decisions such as withdrawing or withholding cachexia treatment. Your input would be required to review the key questions covering the scope of the guidelines, critically comment the guidelines draft and participate in the discussion on treatment decisions. Part of this work will be done in two Delphi consensus procedures, one in the second half of this year and the other in 2009.

You can find more information on the homepage of this project: www.epcrc.org.
The workpackage on clinical practice guidelines has developed a list of key questions, please follow this link: http://www.epcrc.org/publication_listfiles.php?id=JNYETvM7UtG1bZBvr9Cq

You can also find this list on the EPCRC-homepage under the menu: Project Documents/ Guidelines cachexia.

We would appreciate to receive your feedback. Do these questions cover the scope that a clinical practice guideline on cachexia in advanced cancer has to cover?

Best wishes

Lukas Radbruch
(Workpackage Clinical Guidelines)

Dear member,

The 10th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in June 2007 in Budapest has been a great success. More than 2000 participants have discussed issues from symptom control to ethical decision making. The congress has been the first EAPC-congress held in a Central or Eastern European country. The high quality of the scientific programme, but also the enjoyable setting and the splendid organisation of the local organizing committee from the Hungarian Palliative Care Association ensured that the congress participants were thoroughly pleased not only with the congress, but also with Budapest and Hungary. The list of participants has shown the ongoing development of palliative care in developing as well as developed countries. However, the presentations at the congress pointed out how much there is still to do in many countries, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. Those of our members and readers who had not the chance to attend the congress can soon find a report and a lot of follow up information clicking here.

In Budapest the new Board of Directors has started its term following the elections at the General Assembly of EAPC on the 8th June 2007. Board members for the term 2007 to 2011 are Michaela Bercovitch, Augusto Caraceni, Tine De Vlieger, Pam Firth, Katalin Hegedus, Maria Nabal, Silvio Necchi, Sheila Payne, Lukas Radbruch, André Rhebergen, Esther Schmidlin, Per Sjøgren, Carol Tishelman and Chantal Wood.

The first meeting of the new board has given me the honor to be elected as new President of EAPC. I would like to start work with a big thank you to the board members who stood down from the board, having completed their term: Carlos Centeno, Marilene Filbert, Lucille Hacpille, Stein Kaasa, Phil Larkin and Francoise Porchet. They have dedicated time and energy to EAPC, and without their ongoing commitment and enthusiasm many projects of EAPC would not have been possible. Special thanks belong to Stein Kaasa and Marilene Filbet, who worked as presidents of EAPC relentlessly for the last 8 years. It seems a great challenge for me to take on the presidency following these leaders in the field! More information on the results of work of the last years can be found at http://www.eapcnet.org/membersonly/genass.asp and the whole EAPC web.

At the Budapest congress the EAPC in collaboration with the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) and the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) has initiated a new campaign on political advocacy: the Budapest Commitments. This is a collaborative programme collecting and supporting the national palliative care associations to define national goals for hospice and palliative care development for the next two years. Many of these national goals will be based on deficits and weaknesses described in the Atlas of Palliative Care that has been published by the EAPC Task Force on Development of Palliative Care in Europe chaired by Carlos Centeno.

Please visit our website regularly, as it is updated frequently. I would like to invite you to participate in the work of EAPC, communicating with other experts in the field at the EAPC congresses, but also more closely in the projects and task forces of EAPC. The association thrives by the energy of its members, and the great success of EAPC is the result of the ongoing commitment of its members.

Lukas Radbruch
EAPC President

The EAPC Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe
(Book and CD-book)

The European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) launched the first "Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe" during the International Congress held in Budapest, 7-9 June 2007.

The study has succeeded in compiling country reports for 42/52 participating countries which results are presented in The Atlas in a very attractive way with tables and maps. A special EAPC Task Force have worked in the last four years in the project and its main results, the Atlas, is representing the largest palliative care research collaboration of its kind, carried out an assessment of palliative care development taking into account political, social and health care policy.

The resulting Atlas brings together country reports with comparative data on the status of palliative care development in 52 countries and a total population of 879 million people including: Palliative care resources, paediatric palliative care, estimate of palliative care beds, certification of palliative care as a specialist area, workforce capacity, legislative issues and the milestones of the development of Palliative Care in each particular country.

There are two versions available of the Atlas: Atlas-book (336 color printed pages) and Atlas CD-book (45 color printed pages and CD). Please find attached the order form.

Dr Carlos Centeno, who led the project, commented: “the ATLAS reveals that Europe faces severe gaps in palliative care service provision. This research has confirmed that palliative care provision does not meet the needs of the population of Europe. For the first time ever there is one source of information on all palliative care resources and we hope our colleagues will use this comparative study to promote palliative care and advance policy making to ensure adequate provision support to terminally ill people across Europe”.

The publication of the EAPC Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe is the first stage in a longer term research project aiming to further research, document and disseminate information on the development of Palliative Care in Europe to 2009. This project will map the provision of specific services, legislation on death, pediatric palliative care, health insurance, epidemic data, sources of funding, use and estimated cost of opioids, research projects, university teaching, professional accreditation and health policy and palliative care.

The EAPC Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe is a partnership between EAPC, the International Observatory on End of Life Care, Help the Hospices, the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care and the University of Navarra.

Reference:

Centeno C, Clark D, Lynch T, Rocafort J, Greenwood A, Flores LA, De Lima L, Giordano A, Brasch S, Praill D. EAPC ATLAS OF PALLIATIVE CARE IN EUROPE. IAHPCPress, Houston, 2007.


Go to the main page of the EAPC Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe
 

EAPC Taskforce - Palliative Care in Children

Dear EAPC members and colleagues ,

We are writing to inform you that the EAPC Taskforce - Palliative Care in Children, established at the end of 2006, has recently published a paper outlining standards of care for children with life-limiting and life threatening illness. This paper is the first in a series of works planned by the Taskforce that we hope may become a pivot for the development and improvement of palliative care services for children and may contribute to bringing about the changes in the care of children that are much needed in all European countries.

The Document is entitled IMPACCT - Standards for paediatric palliative care in Europe, it was published in the European Journal of Palliative Care vol. 14 no 3 and is currently available in English through the EAPC website (http://www.eapcnet.org/projects/Paedriatic.asp). We would like to give this document as much visibility as possible and are keen that it reaches as wide a field as possible. We have obtained the rights from the EJPC publishers, Hayward, to reproduce the translated article and are looking to publish the translation in international palliative care sector journals throughout Europe.

We would be very grateful for any assistance and support from national and regional organizations and associations in the translation and dissemination of this document. If you would like more information regarding the publication or translation or just more information regarding the Taskforce, please contact the Taskforce Secretary at international@maruzza.org (tel + 39 06 3290609, fax +39 06 363 06482)

Thank you for your attention,

Franca Benini and Huda Abu Saad Huijer
Co-Chairs EAPC Taskforce ? Palliative Care in Children
 

An invitation to the European Association for Palliative Care
5th EAPC Research Forum 2008 in Trondheim, Norway

We are delighted to invite all our colleagues and friends to join us in Trondheim to experience and contribute to the latest cutting edge research in palliative care. Between May 29 and 31st, participants will see the latest research being presented, as well as plenary lectures from our invited guest speakers. Do not miss this unique opportunity to meet the most experienced researchers in palliative care in a face-to-face setting.

You may submit your abstract(s) online. The deadline for submission online is October 15th, 2007.

For detailed information about the program, abstract submission and the conference city of Trondheim, please visit our website at:

http://www.eapcnet.org/Research2008/

On behalf of EAPC we take pride in welcoming you to Trondheim and the 2008 EAPC conference.

Best wishes,