LAUSR

As president of the European Association for Cancer Education (EACE), I am honoured to have the opportunity to write an editorial for the Journal of Cancer Education (JCE). Since our foundation in 1984, the American Association for Cancer Education (AACE) has been a very strong and supportive partner. Like many small associations, we have faced difficult times throughout the years in terms of membership and the number of participants attending our annual meeting. As part of our cooperation, a strong participation from our AACE colleagues has helped us to move forward and to continue to provide interesting scientific meetings. Maria Bishop is one of our strongest supporters and EACE is delighted that she has been appointed Editor in Chief of the JCE. We look forward to strengthening our common effort in the development of cancer education. We would also like to acknowledge the work and support of Art Michalek during his time at the helm. This year, our annual scientific meeting was held in Haifa, Israel. Professor Gilad Amiel invited us to the RAMBAM Healthcare Campus where he is Chief of the Department of Urology. Along with his team of local organisers, we enjoyed a scientific program comprising two and a half days filled with oral presentations and workshops. As with all of our meetings, students were strongly encouraged to present their research or experiences related to education and training in oncology. As part of a successful mentoring program for students interested in Oncology at the University of Wroclaw, a strong group of Polish students attended our meeting. One of their presentations was about a summer workshop organised by a hospice in Poland, teaching students and young medical doctors how to improve their communication skills and inform patients about their disease and prognosis [1]. Training in communication skills, especially how to break bad news, is not routinely part of the medical curricula in some European countries. An Israeli student reported on the growing field of patient-centred palliative care in Israel and the need to develop special training programs for medical students. He presented a one week program taking place at the RAMBAMHealth Care Campus, teaching 4th–6th-year students basic knowledge about symptom control, end of life care and multidisciplinary team work [2]. A study from Australia was presented, focusing on student exposure to cancer patients and the nature of these encounters. Focus groups identified that basic oncology teaching was lacking and that the exposure to a cancer patient was opportunistic. Due to poor cancer knowledge, they felt uncomfortable in discussions about treatment and prognosis and uncertain about communication style [3]. Whilst, I simply cannot summarise all of the presentations, I want to highlight a few more. Poland is still experiencing low attendance rates of women in the nationwide mammography screening program, started in 2006, with only 37% of the invited women attending the program in 2016. Questionnaire data collected from 200 women highlighted that fear of pain during examination and fear of a positive result were the most common reasons for non-participation. As a result of this study, there will be a stronger focus on local education programs for women to better inform them about cancer prevention [4]. Non-participation in screening programs or misunderstanding of the information provided is often based on a lack of understanding of basic health care information. A very interesting workshop [5] on health literacy and how we can better enable patients to make informed health care decisions was well received by the delegates. The workshop demonstrated how to create a health literate friendly health care environment and ways in which we can improve our teaching and communication abilities. In attempting to understand the needs of our patients, it is necessary to consider both their cultural and religious needs. A student from Israel [6] presented a very interesting study about the differences between Arab breast cancer patients in the Galiliee compared to those living in the West Bank. There was a difference in * Sabine Fromm-Haidenberger