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e-newsletter | June 2021
Cancer in Childhood: Late effects and survivorship
Improving prognoses and treatment outcomes mean that more children are surviving their cancers. These patients will look to general practice to provide support and ongoing surveillance of their health issues caused by their childhood cancer. This free education session will provide an update on the late effects for survivors of childhood cancer, and key surveillance strategies recommended for patients transitioning to the primary care setting after initial diagnosis and treatment as well as the considerations for adult survivors of childhood cancer.
Date: Thursday 29 July
Time: 7.00pm - 8.00pm
Zoom link will be email to registrants the day before the webinar
Presented by: Dr Thomas Walwyn - Senior Paediatric & Adolescent Oncologist, Perth Children’s Hospital
Women's Health Day
The Cancer Council WA GP Education Project is pleased to announce the return of our annual face to face Women’s Health Day. Developed & delivered in collaboration with Sexual Health Quarters, BreastScreen WA, WAPHA, & King Edward Memorial Hospital, this event will cover the topics of uterine cancer, familial breast cancer and genetic testing, syphilis and pregnancy, heavy menstrual bleeding, and the cervical cancer screening program.
Date: Saturday 4 September
Time: 8.30am - 3.00pm
Venue: The Boulevard Centre, 99 The Boulevard Floreat, WA 6014
Head & Neck Supervised Clinical Attachment - Expression of interest
In the near future, the Cancer Council WA GP Education Project and Fiona Stanley Hospital will be offering a supervised clinical attachment (SCA) at the Rapid Access Head and Neck clinic. This SCA will be eligible for 40 CPD points with the Royal Australia College of GPs. Places are limited - register your interest by emailing, gp@cancerwa.asn.au, to be kept up-to-date as this project evolves.
National Cancer Screening Register: Order a replacement home test-kit online
General practice health professionals can now order or encourage their patients to order a replacement bowel home test-kit via the National Cancer Screening Register website. To request a kit you must provide basic demographic details including date of birth, postal address, and Medicare or department of veterans affairs number. This feature can be accessed on the ‘contact us’ page of the website.
WA Cancer Lead: Primary Care collaborative - Expressions of interest now sought
Department of Health is looking to appoint a primary health care representative for the WA Cancer Leads group. This is a group of 20 leads from different areas involved with cancer control. Many of the groups are tumour-streamed (i.e. colorectal, lung, breast etc..) and the other groups are services/discipline-related to cancer such as psycho-oncology, survivorship, data & research etc.. This includes a representative from primary health care. With the implementation of the WA Cancer Plan 2020-2025 the role of a primary health care representative will be important for many priority areas. This is a paid appointment for 4 hours per fortnight.
Anyone who is interested please email Dr Tom Ferguson, Medical Director – Cancer, Health Networks, Department of Health at, thomas.ferguson@health.wa.gov.au
Make Smoking History – Brief advice online training
This online training is designed to support smoking cessation brief advice in general practice and is accredited with RACGP. GPs and nurse practitioners will become familiar with a 3-step brief advice model for providing smoking cessation support to patients.
Content includes:
- Impact of providing brief advice for smoking cessation on smoking status compared to only asking about smoking status.
- Brief advice for smoking cessation as per the 3-step model
- Appropriate pharmacotherapies to assist smoking cessation
- Potential drug interactions associated with smoking cessation (thereby increasing patient safety)
- Behavioural support for smoking cessation, including referral to Quitline
Telehealth fact sheet
Telehealth is an important tool for patients to access their healthcare providers when unable to attend “in person” appointments. Formerly used primarily for regional patients or those with comorbidities or mobility issues, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought Telehealth into mainstream healthcare and it may now be that your patient attends their cancer consultations remotely.
The Telehealth for cancer patients and carers fact sheet is available via the Cancer Council WA website and provides useful information for patients to demystify the process and improve the overall Telehealth experience and the information provided is just as useful for general practice Telehealth appointments.
Rare and less common types of cancer - resources
52,000 Australians are affected by rare or less common cancers. Cancer Council Australia has developed new resources to help these patients and their carers with the cancer journey. These factsheets provide suggestions for coping with a diagnosis; for making treatment decisions and coping before, during and after treatment as well as providing support service information. Rare or less common cancers addressed by the resources include:
- appendix cancer and pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP)
- adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC)
- soft tissue sarcoma
- neuroendocrine tumours (NETs)
- appendix cancer
- small bowel cancer
- upper tract urothelial carcinoma
- gall bladder cancer
- penile cancer
- ocular melanoma.
General Practice can support patients, their family, and carers by printing and sharing these resources as appropriate.
Our Cancer Nurses can help general practice health professionals and their patients with evidence-based cancer advice and support. Speak to our Cancer Nurses on 13 11 20.
