Stephanie Otto: We can’t accept that some cancer patients still don’t have access to treatment as recommended

Stephanie Otto, Visiting Professor at Barceló Foundation, Senior Scientist and Exercise Oncologist at Ulm University Hospital, shared on LinkedIn:

“Thinking about developing new (exercise) oncology approaches and how to implement exercise oncology as an integrated part of modern cancer treatment, we shouldn’t oversee that there are still countries and regions in the world which don’t even have access to all kinds of standard cancer treatments.

Travelling for research and collaboration concerns (and for receiving a visiting professorship in Buenos Aires) through beautiful Argentina during the last four weeks opened my eyes to realise that nothing is guaranteed and due to a variety of circumstances for some patients it seems to be coincidental to get the standard cancer treatment, e.g. chemotherapy.

We can’t accept that some cancer patients still don’t have access to treatment as recommended!

Besides to the lack of chemotherapeutic drugs, in the whole country there’s no exercise oncology program yet, although growing evidence has been shown in the field during the last two decades.

On the other hand an unbelievable enthusiasm and motivation for the topic of exercise oncology was reflected to me, which I’ve never experienced before.

Every day I gave up to three lectures and workshops to oncologists, kinesiologists, physiotherapists, sports teachers and occupational therapists or other healthcare professionals, at universities, but also for the community and health ministries.

We had great discussions on implementation and research strategies, education, (digital) treatment options and on the development of postgraduate programs for kinesiologists to get involved in the academic research level.

One of the best experiences was my exemplary treatment of a young girl at the Children’s hospital of Cordoba:

Oncologists, therapists and all staff were completely impressed by the great fun and enthusiasm of the girl exercising instead of being bored sad, or even depressed.

But the best: a few days after our visit they started a program for children with cancer.

Thank you very much again to the gender equality office of Ulm University for the financial support and scholarship and to Universitätsklinikum Ulm (University Hospital Ulm) and to Fundación Barceló for the great support to makes this possible!

Huge thanks to the team of Lernen and Geben and of course to Harry C. Bachmann and Maria de Los Angeles for the fantastic organisation and support!”

Source: Stephanie Otto/LinkedIn