The European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOP Europe) is the only pan-European organisation representing all professionals working in the field of childhood cancers. Annika Strasser, SIOP Europe Communication and Marketing Coordinator, tells us about how it fosters partnerships that are helping to push progress across international boundaries.
With more than 2,500 members across 35 countries, SIOP Europe has been leading the way to ensure the best possible care and outcomes for all childhood cancer patients and survivors in Europe for the past 25 years. Our mission is to cure more children and to cure them better - and we won’t stop until the job is done. Many of the issues at stake for SIOP Europe are similar to those of general rare disease organisations, such as:
- the development of new therapies and treatments
- difficulties finding clinical expertise & accessing appropriate treatments
- difficulties carrying out clinical studies due to the small number of patients
- insufficient medical training on each specific disease area
- the quality of survivorship due to late effects of treatment
- lack of information among the general public
Collaboration is key
At SIOP Europe, we believe partnerships are fundamental for innovation and progress that will benefit both the professionals who deliver care as well as the childhood cancer patients and families who receive care. To identify and understand the most pressing issues, SIOP Europe collaborates with several rare disease advocates, using the information gleaned to raise awareness and engage in advocacy activities at European level. This is indispensable to placing the issue of rare cancers firmly on the European policy agenda, and to identify and promote appropriate solutions and exchange best practices. We also work closely with Childhood Cancer International - Europe, bridging any gaps between childhood cancer patients and professional communities.
As a result of these activities, SIOP Europe is involved in many projects, such as ERN PaedCan, EU Network of Youth Cancer Survivors, SmartCARE, QUARTET and the Access to Medicines Project, to name just a few. Together, these projects address specific needs covering the entire childhood cancer spectrum ranging from drug research and development to delivery of care and all the way up to patient-centred survivorship care to improve quality, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and accessibility for survivors and caregivers.
The common denominators of our projects are fostering innovation and progress and sharing best practices and knowledge through collaboration and cooperation at an international level.
To further complement these activities, SIOP Europe also coordinates several working groups that address specific areas of care and research for the benefit of children and young people with cancer in Europe and works together with other organisations to offer continuing medical education to paediatric oncology professionals.
The SIOP Europe Strategic Plan Update (2021-2026) focuses on several key areas that will move us towards achieving our mission, including:
- addressing inequalities
- precision medicine and treatment innovation
- tumour biology
- teenagers and young adults
- quality of survivorship
- causes of cancer
- big data and artificial intelligence
More information about SIOP Europe
From Contact magazine issue 98 - Spring 2023
