The ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group (PAWG) main mission is the optimisation of patient care in Europe and worldwide, the continuous improvement of cancer-specific information and education, the strengthening of patient autonomy and the support of patient rights.
Activities and responsibilities
- Providing adequate information about cancer, its diagnosis, treatment, palliative care and aftercare
- Organising meetings where patient organisations and individuals have the opportunity to express their wishes, concerns and requests
- Interacting with patients to share concerns and experiences and developing action plans for strengthening the role of patients in the oncology community
- Helping physicians and other healthcare providers to understand the specific needs of individual patients, to enhance the quality of communication and personal interaction
- Building strong coalitions between patient representative groups, cancer physicians and other healthcare providers in order to improve the quality of cancer care
- Assisting physicians in obtaining advice from specialists for rare or complex cancer cases
2025-2026 ESMO Patient Advocates Working Group (PAWG)
Chair
- Digestive Cancers Europe (DiCE - Belgium): Zorana Maravic
Committee Members
- Alivia - Fundacja Onkologiczna (Poland): Agata Polińska
- Australian & New Zealand Urogenital & Prostate (ANZUP - Australia): Belinda Jago
- Blodcancerforum (Sweden): Lise-lott Eriksson
- Breast Cancer Welfare Association Malaysia: Ranjit Kaur Pritam Singh
- Desmóide Brasil: Georgia Garofalo
- ELLOK (Greece): Georgios Kapetanakis
- Europa Donna Luxembourg: Ingrid Krücken
- Kenya Network of Cancer Organizations (KENCO): Prisca Githuka
- Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE - Switzerland) : Anne-Marie Baird
- Rare Cancers Australia: Richard Vines
- Save Your Skin Foundation (Canada): Jasmine MacGowan