EORTC driving the policy agenda for clinical cancer research in Europe

ECCO Cancer Summit on European Cancer Care across Borders will take place on 12-14 September 2019 in Brussels, Belgium, providing a focal point for resolution on the burning matters affecting access to high quality cancer care for patients across Europe.

The Summit will bring together worldwide leaders from cancer care, research, patient advocacy and public-private sectors in a unique multi-stakeholder forum.

EORTC has organised a session on 14 September from 09:00-11:00 to discuss clinical cancer research. Bringing together all stakeholders including regulators, industry, HTA bodies, medical insurers and patient advocates, it aims to discuss the possibilities of improving clinical cancer research across Europe by a paradigm shift,  with the ultimate goal of better enabling rationale access to therapeutic strategies.

Denis Lacombe

Roger Wilson

The session titled “Clinical cancer research across Europe: Do we need to change tracks?”
which will be moderated by Dr Denis Lacombe, Director of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and Roger Wilson, sarcoma survivor and patient advocate.

Precision oncology and new approaches to clinical trials are already changing the way practitioners in the research environment think about evidence gathering. Meanwhile, there is a growing policy understanding of the need to employ a fuller suite of clinical outcomes within research, treatment evaluation and reimbursement decisions. This means making use of a stronger range of quality of life indicators alongside patient survival.

Building on the EORTC ‘Manifesto for a new approach for better medicine in Europe’ and recently published proposals for reforming the model for late translational research, the session will also reflect on the role of data in driving change and improvement in research, and the remaining obstacles to more meaningful exchange between systems in this area.

Finally, the session will also consider how models of clinical research in cancer in Europe can better involve the expertise and contributions of all healthcare professionals and the patient community.

The range of issues addressed in the session will be opened via three presentations:

• Dr Denis Lacombe, Director of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) will convey potential approaches for bringing new therapeutic strategies into being, including proposed reforms required to existing processes within the European regulatory environment
• Dr Magda Chlebus, Executive Director of Science Policy, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), will speak to her considerations of what is required to make treatment optimisation a reality.
• Dr Ralf Herold, Scientific Officer, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), will give a picture of the EMA’s response to evolving debates on new endpoints and some of the continuing controversies and potential misunderstandings in this areas

Moderated exchange will then take place between the audiences on session speakers, including panellists:

• Marcus Guardian, Chief Operating Officer, the European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUNETHA)
• Jo de Cock, Chief Executive Officer, the National Institute of Health and Disability Insurance, Belgium

Teodora Lalova

EORTC will also present a study on clinical trials across borders in a spotlight session hosted on 13 September from 09:00 to 09:30. No significant EU legislative initiative has been taken to improve the access to clinical trials for patients living in another EU country. In a collaborative effort, a team comprised of researchers from the European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP), the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), KU Leuven and Patvocates, with the support of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), have been engaged in an exploratory study on clinical trials across borders. Teodora Lalova, EORTC Research Fellow, will present the preliminary results of the research.

For more information, please go to ECCO Summit website.