Unanswered questions in prostate cancer - findings of an international multi-stakeholder consensus by the PIONEER consortium.

PIONEER is a European network of excellence for big data in prostate cancer consisting of 37 private and public stakeholders from 9 countries across Europe. Many progresses have been done in prostate cancer management, but unanswered questions in the field still exist, and big data could help to answer these questions. The PIONEER consortium conducted a two-round modified Delphi survey aiming at building consensus between two stakeholder groups - health-care professionals and patients with prostate cancer - about the most important questions in the field of prostate cancer to be answered using big data.

Best Current Practice and Research Priorities in Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer-A Report of a Movember International Consensus Meeting.

Background: Active surveillance (AS) is recommended for low-risk and some intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Uptake and practice of AS vary significantly across different settings, as does the experience of surveillance-from which tests are offered, and to the levels of psychological support.

Objective: To explore the current best practice and determine the most important research priorities in AS for prostate cancer.

Identifying the Steps Required to Effectively Implement Next-Generation Sequencing in Oncology at a National Level in Europe.

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) may enable more focused and highly personalized cancer treatment, with the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and European Society for Medical Oncology guidelines now recommending NGS for daily clinical practice for several tumor types. However, NGS implementation, and therefore patient access, varies across Europe; a multi-stakeholder collaboration is needed to establish the conditions required to improve this discrepancy. In that regard, we set up European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM)-led expert panels during the first half of 2021, including key stakeholders from across 10 European countries covering medical, economic, patient, industry, and governmental expertise.

The Key Role of Patient Involvement in the Development of Core Outcome Sets in Prostate Cancer.

Patients are the stewards of their own care and hence their voice is important when designing and implementing research. Patients should be involved not only as participants in research that impacts their care, as the recipients of that care and any associated harms, but also as research collaborators in prioritising important questions from the patient perspective and designing the research and the ways in which is it most appropriate to involve patients. The PIONEER Consortium, an international multistakeholder collaboration lead by the European Association of Urology, has developed a core outcome set (COS) for localised and metastatic prostate cancer relevant to all stakeholders in particular patients.

Bringing Greater Accuracy to Europe's Healthcare Systems: The Unexploited Potential of Biomarker Testing in Oncology.

Rapid and continuing advances in biomarker testing are not being matched by take-up in health systems, and this is hampering both patient care and innovation. It also risks costing health systems the opportunity to make their services more efficient and, over time, more economical. This paper sets out the potential of biomarker testing, the unfolding precision and range of possible diagnosis and prediction, and the many obstacles to adoption.

ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Prostate cancer.

Background: ECCO Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care (ERQCC) are written by experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care in Europe. They give oncology teams, patients, policymakers and managers an overview of essential care throughout the patient journey.

Prostate Cancer: Prostate cancer is the second most common male cancer and has a wide variation in outcomes in Europe.

The European Prostate Cancer Centres of Excellence: A Novel Proposal from the European Association of Urology Prostate Cancer Centre Consensus Meeting.

Background: High-quality management of prostate cancer is needed in the fields of clinics, research, and education.

Objective: The objective of this project was to develop the concept of "European Prostate Cancer Centres of Excellence" (EPCCE), with the specific aim of identifying European centres characterised by high-quality cancer care, research, and education.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A task force of experts aimed at identifying the general criteria to define the EPCCE.

Being on active surveillance: the patient perspective.

Prostate cancer (PCa) patients selected for active surveillance (AS) have received information on prostate cancer PCa, treatment, knew their serum prostate specific antigen (PSA), a digital rectal examination (DRE) done and could rely on their set of biopsies to be labelled as low grade, low volume disease (by adding a radiographic/ultrasonic measurement). They usually react euphoric to the selection hoping to escape invasive curative treatment and its side-effects. Unfortunately, this positive feeling waivers in front of uncertainty in the follow-up including biopsies.

Health Literacy: Read All about It ….

One of the key goals in the personalised medicine era is to improve communication between front-line healthcare professionals and their patients. The latter should have an equal role in any decisions made about their treatment, and this requires them to be able to input vital information, such as lifestyle and work circumstances, as well as to be properly informed from the other side. Discussions should be a two-way street.

Recognizing Symptom Burden in Advanced Prostate Cancer: A Global Patient and Caregiver Survey.

Background: Bone metastases in men with prostate cancer are often initially asymptomatic, resulting in delayed identification, diagnosis, and appropriate treatment. To assess how patients with advanced prostate cancer (aPC) communicate symptoms to health care providers, an international patient survey was conducted.

Methods: An online and phone survey was conducted by Harris Poll in 11 countries (Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States) from February 12 to October 27, 2015, in men with aPC (ie, those who reported as having PC beyond the prostate [metastatic]) and their caregivers.

The European Cancer Patient's Bill of Rights, update and implementation 2016.

In this implementation phase of the European Cancer Patient's Bill of Rights (BoR), we confirm the following three patient-centred principles that underpin this initiative:The right of every European citizen to receive the most accurate information and to be proactively involved in his/her care.The right of every European citizen to optimal and timely access to a diagnosis and to appropriate specialised care, underpinned by research and innovation.The right of every European citizen to receive care in health systems that ensure the best possible cancer prevention, the earliest possible diagnosis of their cancer, improved outcomes, patient rehabilitation, best quality of life and affordable health care.

Setting an Agenda for Assessment of Health-related Quality of Life Among Men with Prostate Cancer on Active Surveillance: A Consensus Paper from a European School of Oncology Task Force.

Background: Literature on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for men with localized prostate cancer (PCa) on active surveillance (AS) shows a need for methodological guidance regarding HRQoL issues and how to address them.

Objective: The European School of Oncology Task Force (ESO TF) aimed to identify a core set of research questions and related measures to include in AS HRQoL studies.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A modified Delphi study was used to reach consensus on AS HRQoL research topics and tools between 2014 and 2015.