New counseling phone for cancer patients

With the help of a new manual and a hotline, Deutsche Krebshilfe and the Cancer Society want to enlighten patients even better in the future

28/10/2014

In 2013, about 9,000 cancer patients or their relatives were advised by the German Cancer Aid by telephone and about 5 million information brochures were sent. The many consultations and information offers take into account the high demand among those affected. "The information needs of cancer patients and their relatives are high," Dr. Fritz Pleitgen, President of the German Cancer Aid announced. Pleitgen in a press release on the website of the German Cancer Aid further: „Cancer patients should and want to be included in the medical decisions today and thus be equal partners in their treating physicians.“

To better meet the brisk demand for information, Deutsche Krebshilfe and the Cancer Society have now published a manual written by the picture editor Sarah Majorczyk and also set up a new hotline. The handbook contains the expert knowledge of 60 well-known experts of the German Cancer Aid and the German Cancer Society and explains more than 35 different types of cancer as well as various diagnostic and therapeutic options. According to Ärzte Zeitung, it also contains testimonials from celebrity cancer patients showing how they dealt with the shocking diagnosis and defeated the disease. Dr. Johannes Bruns, Secretary General of the German Cancer Society in a press release from the company: „In collaboration with BILD as a large German tabloid newspaper, a book with understandable information was created, which provides support and can take the disease cancer a bit of its horror.“

Because the diagnosis of cancer has developed in recent years from a death sentence to a treatable and often completely curable disease that nowadays has to be classified as chronic rather than fatal. Thus, one in two of the approximately 500,000 new patients per year survives the disease, as Hans-Peter Krämer, Chief Executive Officer of the German Cancer Aid notes. Via the telephone hotline „Infonetz cancer“ to advise „Doctors and other trained staff“ The cancer help patients with a central oncological database free of charge. „The counseling service is intended as an additional service and is intended to help patients actively and informedly participate in their treatment“, said Hans-Peter Krämer, CEO of the German Cancer Aid. The database is based on expert knowledge of the cancer society and contains scientific articles, studies, legal texts and protocols of those affected. (Jp)