The pre-congress seminar of the European Palliative Care Research Centre (PRC) and the European Association for Palliative Care Research Network (EAPC RN) took place at Jægtvolden Fjordhotell, Inderøy, Norway on 4-5 June of 2012.

A total of 61 participants from 17 countries across the world attended the event.

Presentations and discussions were held in four plenary sessions and nine parallel sessions on the cancer-related symptoms pain, cachexia and breathlessness.

Presentations from the seminar:
Cancer pain:

• Caraceni – Cancer pain – Guidelines and treatment
• Currie – Cancer pain – Translational research in cancer-induced bone pain
• Fainsinger – Cancer pain – Content and assessment methodology-moving on
• Laird – Symptoms and their relationship to systemic inflammation in a large multinational cohort of patients with advanced cancer
• Laurent – Cancer pain – Refractory cancer pain in children-is methadone an alternative
• Lawlor – Cancer pain – Assessment and classification
• Lawlor – Cancer pain – How does disease modifying treatment fit into future cancer pain management guidelines
• Somogyi – Inflammation and cancer pain – Basic mechanisms

Cancer cachexia:

• Baracos – Cancer cachexia – Basic mechanisms
• Enevoldsen – Cancer cachexia – Appetite stimulants and cancer cachexia
• Fearon – Cancer cachexia – Basic mechanisms-more than sarcopenia?
• Fearon – Cancer cachexia – Assessment and classification
• Fearon – Cancer cachexia – Assessment methodology – biological
• Jagoe – Cancer cachexia – Characteristics and responses to treatment in patients referred to a specialist cancer cachexia clinic
• Skorpen – Cancer cachexia – P-selectin genotype is associated with the development of cancer cachexia
• Strasser – Cancer cachexia – Guidelines and treatment
• Strasser – Cancer cachexia – The ESPEN initiative on guidelines
• Strasser – Cancer cachexia – Assessment and classification methodology PROs

Cancer-related breathlessness:

• Currow – Breathlessness – Basic mechanisms
• Currow – Breathlessness – Central effects of dyspnoea
• Johnson – Breathlessness – Peripheral mechanisms in Dyspnoea
• Johnson – Breathlessness – Longer-term opioid-related improvement in breathlessness
• Walsh – Breathlessness – Comprehensive symptom assessment-is it realistic

The scientific committee:
Stein Kaasa (NO)
Kenneth Fearon (UK)
David Currow (AU)
Augusto Caraceni (IT)
Pål Klepstad (NO)
Vickie Baracos (CA)
Frank Skorpen (NO)

The sponsors:
Nycomed: a Takeda company
Den norske Eterfabrik and Molteni Pharmaceuticals

The full seminar programme can be downloaded here