Bar Levy, Founder and CEO of HaBait Shel Bar – Israel’s Women’s Cancer Association, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“A New Era Begins: Bringing Patient Advocacy Into GEC-ESTRO
Last week I had the privilege of speaking at the GEC-ESTRO 2025 Conference — marking a meaningful and long-awaited shift in the way brachytherapy and radiation oncology engage with patient advocacy.
For the first time, GEC-ESTRO is formally building a structured partnership with the patient advocacy community — an initiative by GEC-ESTRO and co-led together with HaBait Shel Bar – Israel’s Women’s Cancer Association (RA) and Cancer Patients Europe – CPE.
Our session, “The Beginning of a New Era: Involving Patients with GEC-ESTRO,” was more than a discussion. It was the first step in reshaping how patient insights, needs, and experiences are embedded into clinical practice, quality standards, and research frameworks.
Prof Peter Niehoff MaHM opened with highlights from the patient’s survey, I shared with the audience what is patient advocacy and how important it is to collaborate together – clinicians and patient advocates. I also share 2 of our quality of life studies, and we heard the testimony of Jasmina, a cervical cancer survivor for Serbia.
Our panel discussion explored what needs to change: communication that empowers, shared decision-making that explains all journeys which can improve adherence, outcomes, and trust, and of course addressing the lack of knowledge about brachytherapy in the general population.
I had the honor of contributing to the impactful partnership between GEC-ESTRO and patient advocacy that I am sure will influence the next decade of practice.
I would like to thank GEC-ESTRO, and especially prof. Peter Niehoff and prof. Alina Sturdza.
We’re not adding a seat at the table – we are redesigning the table together.”
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