2012 Oncopolicy Forum

Prof Jose Mariano Gago explains that given the rapid expansion of the global oncological community, there is an ever growing need for a greater level of dialogue between oncology policy makers and stakeholders within Europe. Prof Gago explains how ECCO can help address this issue help the oncological community develop further the availability of personalised medicines.

Profs Valentini, Naredi and Casali talk to ecancer.tv about personalised medicine and explain how it is affecting the fields of radiation oncology, surgical oncology and clinical oncology. The panel discuss what areas of specialty are included in modern multi discipline oncology teams, outline the way ECCO is encouraging collaboration and providing a single voice for oncology and emphasise that personalised treatment should address not just disease, but the overall needs of the patient.

Prof Martine Piccart warns that although there has been rapid progress in development of personalised cancer treatment, there is still a shortage of diagnostic tests and effective prognostic biomarkers to identify which patients will respond to treatments or eventually relapse. Without this oncologists will continue to over-treat many patients and waste valuable funds. Prof Piccart concludes by commenting that personalised medicine is currently simply stratified medicine and explains what progress must be made personalised medicine is achieved in full.

Prof Alexander Eggermont and Prof Francoise Meunier talk to ecancer.tv about the challenges associated with the development of personalised medicine, including difficulties raising sufficient funds for European cancer trials, the way this can be addressed by collaborations with academia and the steps that must be taken to overcome the differences in the agendas of academia and industry.

Whilst personalised medicine offers many benefits, these treatment options are typically very expensive and unlikely to be universally available. Ian Banks and Jan Geissler talk to ecancer.tv about the difficulties associated with such discrepancies in treatment availability and outline the contribution cancer patient groups can make informing patients about personalised therapies, and helping clinicians understand what patients want from new treatments.

The panel discuss the level of understanding of personalised oncology treatments among the general public and explain what steps must be taken to improve this. There are many advantages to a more individualised approach to oncology; however for this approach to succeed it is essential that all stakeholders are engaged and contribute towards its development. The panel explain how Horizon 2020 will give oncologists an opportunity to contribute to funding policy, consider the need for a more advanced data management systems to deal with the increase in data associated with a multi discipline approach to oncology and emphasise the need for ECCO to provide a platform for Europe-wide treatment guidelines.