Reference: January 2026 | Issue 1 | Vol 12 | Page 7
The conference also heard from Ms Brid O’Riordan, Cancer Survivorship Clinical Nurse Specialist, who delivered a talk on the ‘INSPIRE: Advanced Prostate Cancer Survivorship’ project at St James’s Hospital, Dublin.
This nurse-led initiative is a survivorship model of care designed to enhance quality of life for patients with advanced metastatic prostate cancer (mPCa). INSPIRE stands for ‘INdividualised care, Survivorship, Prostate, Information, Rehabilitation, and Empowerment’.
Ms O’Riordan touched on statistics to show the high prevalence of prostate cancer in Ireland, including mortality rates. She also praised the momentum in Ireland in raising awareness of the disease and the effectiveness of therapies.
“We are essentially no longer fully dependent on chemotherapies,” she said. “We now also have access to more ARPIs [androgen receptor pathway inhibitors] and patients with a BRCA [mutation] have access to PARP [poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitors, along with fantastic surgical and radiation options.”
While it is heartening that these men are living with and beyond their prostate cancer diagnosis, there are implications resulting from their treatment modalities. “That’s not just physical, it also includes psychological and social [aspects],” said Ms O’Riordan.
She examined the definition of cancer survivorship. “Many of you would define cancer survivorship as the time when the patient has finished their treatment and is cancer-free,” she said.
“But we know that survivorship begins at the time of diagnosis and continues until the end of life, and is referred to as ‘living with and beyond cancer’, and it’s the patients living with cancer who brought about our INSPIRE project.”
INSPIRE supports patients, families and carers with reliable information on diagnosis, treatment decisions, side effects, and life during and after treatment. “We now have our own model of care, the ALLIES model,” she told the conference.
“That stands for ‘Assess, Link in, Link out and onward, Inform, Empower, and Support’ service. And it’s this model of care that I use in my clinical role each day.”
Ms O’Riordan concluded: “I would ask you all, whatever area you work in, to treat the person, the caregiver, and the family, not just the cancer. As treatments improve and more people are living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis, these patients deserve that individualised, holistic care approach to their cancer journey.
“Survivorship clinics are ideally placed to do this, but I’m fully aware that this isn’t always available across the country for people.”
“What I would say is, don’t let that be a barrier,” she continued. “Think of the simple things – give the patient information about the PERCS [Personalised Exercise Rehabilitation in Cancer Survivorship] website, and find out what’s available in your area, see what that cancer support centre does. And then go back to your working area and sell it to the patients, because PERCS are fantastic in helping us to manage patients, and indeed their families, in their cancer journey.”
