MASCC and a passion for supportive care in cancer The identification and management of supportive care needs is an essential component of health care for people with cancer. MASCC, thanks to its wide international membership, has been playing a crucial role in tackling global issues in supportive Liam West
care by developing treatment guidelines, educational
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he Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary at its annual meeting in Adelaide from 23-25 June 2016. Founded to promote research and education in all areas of supportive care for patients with cancer, and to increase professional expertise,1 it provides a forum for research and the exchange of information about initiatives in supportive care. MASCC has a tag line which sums up the motivation of its members; “Supportive care makes excellent cancer care possible�. Supportive care is interpreted in its broadest sense, covering all stages of care, from diagnosis of cancer into survivorship and end-of-life care, and encompassing the prevention and management of physical, emotional, psychosocial and spiritual symptoms and side effects of treatment. The patient is the central focus but supporting their caregivers is vital as well. Emerging supportive care topics The largest global issue in supportive care arguably concerns the disparities in the delivery of supportive care. This can be due to marginalised communities within a country having poorer access to treatment, or disparities between countries, which differ widely in socioeconomic status. In supportive care a major issue has been pain control, particularly the availability of morphine. There are ongoing
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strategies and supportive care research.
Ian Olver, President Elect, MASCC
multinational initiatives to address this, such as the GAPRI (Global Access to Pain Relief Initiative – http://www.uicc.org/programmes/gapri), but there is still much to achieve. Where the availability of cancer therapies is limited, the whole range of supportive care drugs and psychosocial support mechanisms is often lacking. Even in nations of higher socioeconomic status, the high cost of both cancer and supportive care drugs can be prohibitive. This is a major problem which will require ongoing dialogue between the government, regulators and the pharmaceutical industry. MASCC surveyed South East Asian countries about antiemetic usage to compare with data from Europe and the US. Some of the disparities were due to the lack of availability of drugs.2 However, some differences in practice can be accounted for by whether evidence-based guidelines are used to guide clinical practice or not. The promotion of best practice in supportive care, based on evidence, is clearly also a role which MASCC embraces. Another global issue for supportive care is the widespread use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), an industry estimated to be as large