Guidelines updates and advocacy groups in Pca, Bca and RCC
Prof. Hein Van Poppel (BE) and Dr. Antonella Cardone (BE), chaired the EAU Patient Information Session. Prof. Van Poppel warmly welcomed the attendants to this Specialty Session.
EAU Patient Information’s former Chairman, Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bach (DE), and its current Chairman, Dr. Mark Behrendt (DE), delivered the highlights from the past and present activities of this patient-centred office. With the support of and academic contributions from the EAU PI’s dedicated Working Group Members, EAU PI has grown into a successful urological platform for patients and stakeholders. EAU PI aims to become a key resource for medical professionals, patients and policymakers both across the EU and beyond, Dr. Behrendt explained.
On behalf of the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC), Dr. Antonella Cardone (BE) introduced the coalition’s multi-annual strategy and its growing activities in the field of patient advocacy. Prof. Hein Van Poppel (BE) explained the need for reconsideration of structured population-based PSA screening for prostate cancer in Europe. Mr. John Dowling (IE), representing Europa Uomo on behalf of Mr. André Deschamps (BE), emphasised that it is time for a new strategy to re-introduce prostate cancer screening via three pillars: awareness, PSA led screening and cancer centres.
Co-speaker on behalf of Europa Uomo, Mr. Ernst-Günther Carl (DE), pointed out that rare diseases, such as penile and testicular cancer, do not get as much attention as other urological disease. It is therefore necessary to provide better information and material for patients for early education and detection.
On behalf of the EAU Guidelines Office its Chairman, James N’Dow (GB), emphasised the importance of early detection of prostate cancer and the choice of detection methods following the recommendations of the EAU Guidelines.
Dr. Fred Witjes (NL), member of the EAU Guidelines Panel on Bladder Cancer focussed on the importance of attention for Bca. The future of early detection of Bca includes better imaging and the use of biomarkers.
Fight Bladder Cancer, the UK-based bladder cancer charity, was represented by Dr. Lydia Makaroff (GB) and Mr. Andrew Winterbottom (GB) who spoke about the newly established World Bladder Cancer Patient Coalition which will officially be launched at EAU19 on Monday, 18 March 2019 (16:00, Red Area). Dr. Makaroff also presented the results of the Bladder Cancer Patient Experience Survey, a global survey of 1,615 bladder cancer patients and their carers from 39 countries.
Dr. Lorenzo Serra De Oliveira Marconi (IT), member of the Kidney Cancer Guidelines Panel shared their 2019 key updates and concluded that guidelines increasingly benefit from patient involvement.
On behalf of the International Kidney Cancer Coalition (IKCC), Dr. Rachel Giles (NL) highlighted the IKCC’s activities and its 2019 Strategy. She reported that the IKCC has put in place an InfoHub in order to share information.
Mrs. Michelle Battye (GB), Centre Manager for the European Reference Network (ERN) on rare uro-rectal-genital diseases, eUROGEN, demonstrated the abilities of the ERN Clinical Patient Management System (CPMS), which facilitates virtual multi-disciplinary team meetings in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of rare or low-prevalence complex diseases and conditions.