News

Patients’ School for residents of the Krasnodar region

11.11.2013

Recently the Patients’ School for cancer patients was held in Krasnodar, which was dedicated to the topic “Specifics of diagnosis and treatment of lymphoproliferative disorders”.

Often people who are diagnosed with cancer face a lot of medical, social and psychological problems. In order to provide patients with objective information about their disease, in different regions of Russia Patients’ Schools are regularly conducted by the professional society of haematologists headed by Irina Vladimirovna Poddubnaya, who is a corresponding member of RAMS, doct. med. sci., professor, head of the department of oncology and vice rector for academic affairs and international cooperation at the Russian Medical Academy of Post-Graduate Education, in cooperation with non-profit partnership Equal Right to Life and interregional public movement Movement Against Cancer.
The first and most important task of Patients’ School is to provide objective information the nature of cancer and modern methods of treatment. “If a patient receives adequate treatment and strictly follows all doctor's recommendations, then he or she has a chance to live significantly longer or achieve sustained remission of the disease, be cured,” said Vadim Ptushkin, doct. med. sci., professor, Head of the Department of hematology and oncology of adolescents and adults at FSBI "Federal research and clinical center of pediatric hematology, oncology and immunology" of the Russian Ministry of Health. An equally important topic discussed in the course of this educational event was the drug provision for cancer patients. Often people do not know how to assert their right to receive medication, so the experts of the School provide legal advice on both general and in particular cases. The program of the School in Krasnodar also included the discussion of reduction of adverse effects of therapy.
Margarita Kazantceva, chief physician of the Clinical Cancer Center No. 1 and chief oncologist of Krasnodar Region, believes that a Patients’ School is an effective form of cooperation between all parties interested in improving the cancer care for the population. “Patients can and should posess an objective scientific information about the disease and discuss it with their physician based on this information. Oncologists and patients must become allies and speak the same language: whether all the possible methods of treatment were offered? What prevents the adequate treatment? These are the basic questions on which every patient wants to have answers. Classes conducted as part of Patients’ Schools help people to better understand the situation”.
This format of educational outreach activities improve the quality of specialized care in the regions and undoubtedly contributes to the development of the Russian oncology services in general.