If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Guide to Pain Management Aims to Empower Prostate Cancer Patients NEW ORLEANS, April 14, 1997 -- A new manual has been published to help the 40,000 to 80,000 men with advanced prostate cancer deal with their distinct emotional and physical problems, including severe bone pain. The Immunex Corporation today unveiled the EPIC (Empowered Patients In Control) Manual, a definitive guide developed expressly for men with advanced prostate cancer, their families and health care providers. Debuted here at the 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA), the EPIC Manual is the culmination of months of collaboration by national medical experts and leading prostate cancer patient organizations. It will be available free-of-charge via a toll-free number: 800-220-6302. "As physicians, we must take responsibility for helping to empower our patients," said E. David Crawford, MD, professor of urology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and an EPIC Manual author. "We must help our patients maintain confidence and hope, understand their options and provide them with the information they need to make the right choices. The EPIC Manual represents a major step toward accomplishing this goal." "Immunex is making the EPIC Manual widely available because we believe that empowerment, especially in pain management, is possible only when all members of the prostate cancer team -- health care professionals, the patients themselves and their loved ones -- work together to achieve the best possible care for the patient," said Ed Fritzky, chief executive officer, Immunex Corporation. Comprised of two editions -- one for health care professionals and one directed to the specific needs of patients -- the EPIC Manual was created in direct response to the need for aggressive management of the major symptom of late-stage prostate cancer -- bone pain -- so that patients can continue to lead as normal lives as possible. The Manual alerts all health care providers involved in the care of advanced prostate cancer patients to the importance of pain management, and educates patients and their families about communicating effectively with the medical team. The EPIC Manual will be distributed during the AUA meeting, in May at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, and also will be provided to patients and health care professionals through prostate cancer patient organizations, including US TOO! International, Inc. Joining forces with US TOO!, the American Federation of Urologic Disease and singer-actor Harry Belafonte, a prostate cancer survivor, Immunex Corporation launched the EPIC education initiative in January 1997. The program is chaired by a distinguished group of medical professionals who served also as authors of the EPIC Manual. They include: Dr. Crawford; Marc B. Garnick, MD, associate professor of medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School; Richard Payne, MD, professor of neurology and chief, section of pain and symptom management, University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; and Robert H. Phillips, PhD, founder and director, The Center for Coping, New York. Immunex Corporation markets Novantrone(R) (mitoxantrone for injection concentrate), the first chemotherapy indicated, in combination with corticosteroids, for treatment of patients with pain related to advanced, hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Immunex is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing immune system science to protect human health. The company's products are in the areas of cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases.
|
