Winning Hearts and Minds - with Prof Robert Thomas

Over her distinguished career, Claire Taylor MBE has been at the forefront of the development of cancer nursing, bringing her interest in personalisation and continuity of care to the role, and introducing many new aspects to cancer nursing that have significantly improved the experience of patients before, during and after treatment. Her leadership in the development of nursing in colorectal cancer was acknowledged with the award of an MBE. In this episode she reflects on her achievements and speaks about the current drive to deliver further personalisation through initiatives to move supportive care for cancer out into the community, and to improve accessibility to and increasing range of lifestyle interventions.

Professor Robert Thomas returns to CANCERTALK  to share news of developments since taking up the role of Head of Oncology at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine. He also shares his thoughts on the direction and missed opportunities in the new 10 Year Cancer Plan as well as the latest news from his long-running series of randomised trials of lifestyle interventions for cancer.

With personal experience of cancer when only twenty-four and a career built around cancer care in the charity sector, Julie Worrall, Interim CEO at The Teenage Cancer Trust, is ideally suited to understand the very specific needs of young people unfortunate enough to be diagnosed with cancer. While radical change is desperately needed right across the sector to broaden the scope of cancer care beyond administering treatments, young people have fared particularly poorly when it comes to having their needs met, needs which are very specific to their age. The Teenage Cancer Trust is on a mission to change that, and has played a significant part in the inclusion of specific plans for young people in the National Cancer Plan for the first time.

Dr Santosh Rao has recently completed a term as President of the Society for Integrative Oncology, a leading force in the drive for integration in cancer care and now works at the Cleveland Clinic. Unusually, he is qualified in both Oncology and Integrative Oncology and he has a passion for bringing these two worlds together. In this episode, Dr Rao reviews progress in the integrative movement in recent years, and discusses the therapeutic relationship and the enormous potential that is inherent in it to improve patients wellbeing and outcomes through person-centred care, and the conscious utilisation of the placebo effect.

Dr Ayodele is a Consultant Oncologist who is passionate about bringing change to oncology. As a black woman, she sees part of her role as the spokesperson for marginalised groups when it comes to accessing the best prevention and care, but she is also very focused on driving personalisation forward as a means to address a much broader view of patients as people with multidimensional needs – needs which if responded to appropriately, contribute positively to quality of life and outcomes.

After a career in fundraising and marketing, taking in some of the major charities in the cancer arena, Claire Rowney is CEO of Breast Cancer Now. In this first episode of Series 3 of CANCERTALK, Penny and Robin question Claire about the strategic direction of Breast Cancer Now in terms of the development of person-centred care, about the role of Lifestyle Medicine in that, and about the steps she envisions will take us closer to the level of care she feels should be available to everyone affected by breast cancer.

Lucy Patullo is one of many who have used their own experience of cancer to transform their lives, choosing to work directly to support others facing a diagnosis of cancer, and retraining to bring the resources of integrative medicine that provided them with so much help to many more people. Lucy is outspoken and passionate about the importance of providing support that extends well beyond the physical treatment of cancer, lifestyle approaches that she is confident can both radically improve the experience of treatment and save unnecessary treatment costs.

Dr James Wilson has a deep connection to his work founded in his early personal experience of cancer and cancer care in his own family. These experiences have left him with a clear picture of what patients need from their specialist, particularly in terms of listening to their hopes and needs, and communicating with them at such a critical point in their lives.

Maria Vega is a Senior Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist with more than a decade of experience across the NHS and private healthcare. She is also trained in medical and auricular acupuncture with a focus on oncology and palliative care, and is a Cancer Exercise Specialist and Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery facilitator. Maria is passionate about the need for far broader support for those going through cancer and works to achieve this for her patients. But beyond this she’d like to see Oncology Nurses across the country empowered to deliver or signpost Integrative Oncology modalities.

Prof Rob Newton is a world leader in pioneering Exercise Oncology, destroying previous misconceptions about the need for rest in the face of physically challenging treatments like radiotherapy or chemotherapy, or when faced with common symptoms such as fatigue, low mood or the inability to sleep, with rigorous trial data demonstrating significant improvements in quality of life and substantial cost savings. More recently, the science is demonstrating that exercise really is great medicine for cancer, worthy of equal consideration alongside the best treatments that modern medicine has offer as a means of extending lives.