In this podcast, EAU Prostate Cancer Guidelines Panel members Prof. Nicolas Mottet (France) and Prof. Philip Cornford (GB) have an in-depth discussion on active surveillance in prostate cancer.

We have read about The Prostate Screening EpiSwitch (PSE) test in Cancerworld. The new test has the potential to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies and MRIs, which would both prevent anxiety and complications, and also deliver huge cost savings to health services.

The chair of our Scientific Committee, Prof. Van Poppel, commented: “The strength of the test is that it detects cancers in men with a PSA below three, which is particularly interesting for men who have other risk factors like African-American origin, family history of prostate cancer or those with BRCA2 gene-mutations. However, these are often low grade cancers that you would better ignore or which are amenable for active surveillance. It will need to be affordable, and comparable in price to the PSA risk stratification approach.”

Screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) reduces deaths from prostate cancer, but routine PSA screening for all men leads to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. The German PROBASE study, initiated in 2014, uses a risk-adapted PSA screening strategy that adjusts the screening schedule depending on the participant’s initial PSA level and divides into two cohorts of PSA test at the age of 45 and 50.

Read here for the first results of the PROBASE trial.

Our Board member, Tania Estapé (psychologist), has written an article on denial in prostate cancer patients.

The denial of psychological distress due to prostate cancer is quite frequent. Some of these prostate cancer patients’ express bad emotional feelings and not only at home. In any case, if they refuse emotional or psychological problems due to cancer they are neglecting the need for help or specialised support.

You can read the full article here.

Those people who responded to the EUPROMS 2.0 survey indicating that they would be interested in completing a follow-up survey after one year, please keep an eye on your mailbox between 1st and 3rd March. This follow-up survey will be sent to you in the language in which you completed the EUPROMS 2.0 survey.

At the next annual congress of the European Association of Urology, on 10th to 13th March  in Milan, Europa Uomo will represent prostate cancer patients and speak in several sessions.

Friday, March 10th, 2023
EAU23 Patient Day
09:00-10:00 Urological Patient Presentations
Presentation Günther Carl: Importance of shared decision making in prostate cancer to ensure that patients and clinicians recognise and address patients’ treatment goals
Presentation of Dr. Lionne Venderbos: Collection of patient reported outcomes in daily clinical practice – experiences from a prostate cancer network
11:30-12:30 Roundtable discussion: Hear your Patients: Pragmatic Solutions to Survivorship in Urological Conditions
Presentation by Erik Briers: Sexual dysfunction in male persons after GU-Cancer treatments
Location: Yellow area, Amber 5

10:45-15:15 Meeting of the Young Academic Urologists (YAU)
Presentation Günther Carl: Disease specific: PCa – Results PROMS Studies
Location: Pink area, Coral 6

Sunday, March 12th, 2023
10:15-12:15 Clinical Leadership Development Workshop
Participation: Günther Carl

12:45-13:45 Recordati workshop: Physician and Patient perspectives to frame prostate cancer management
Presentation Günther Carl: Patients’ needs: the patient point of view
Location: Pink area, ESU 1

13:45-15:15 Thematic session: “The road to evidence-based European policy on early detection of prostate cancer”
Chair and closing remarks Günther Carl
Location: Yellow area – eURO aud.1

15:00-16:15 EAUN meeting – Session ‘PCa Special Interest Group: Beyond the PSA test. What is important to men?’
Presentation André Deschamps: EUPROMS: What has it told us?
Location: Yellow area, Amber 7

Monday, March 13th, 2023
10:00-10:15 Game changing session
Presentation André Deschamps: EUPROMS surveys: The real burden of PCa treatment
Location: Yellow area, eURO aud.2

Europa Uomo has a booth in the exhibition area where a new booklet on the EUPROMS results will be available.

This year, the Lithuanian Cancer Patient Coalition (POLA) has marked World Cancer Day by launching its new initiative “Guidance through Cancer”, presenting the network of volunteers – mentors to other patients and encouraging everyone to address to them for emotional support, advice and guidance through their cancer journey.

Mentors share their insights about the launch of this new POLA initiative. “If only I had received this kind of help we are going to provide to others now, my life would have been much easier. POLA is about welcoming, helping, supporting and providing cancer patients with all the relevant information.”

Studies show that patients mostly rely on the experiences of other patients. With this new initiative, POLA aims to help patients and their caregivers to accept and adapt to a new reality of life with cancer and provide guidance to them through all stages of the cancer journey:

• providing them hope and emotional support
• advising on legal and social care issues
• helping to understand the treatment options and advising on various important issues, for instance how to cope with side effects.

Paulius Rakštys, a Board Member of Europa UOMO and POLA, said: “We are delighted that there has been strong interest in this initiative. More than one hundred persons applied and after a series of interviews and training sessions, today more than 60 persons representing 20 different cancer locations are ready to provide support to those who call them by phone. Among them these are several prostate cancer patients and their caregivers too. These volunteers feel the deep meaning of this new initiative, because of their personal experiences and the challenges they had met after the cancer diagnosis.”

On Wednesday, 29th March  2023 from 6 pm to 7 pm CET, Europa Uomo is holding a sixth webinar on active surveillance: “Biomarkers: is it possible to diagnose early and treat better using these techniques?” It will introduce a new and complementary way to better evaluate  cases. What is being studied by the researchers  and clinical specialists to apply in standard protocols in the near future?

More information and registration here.

Look out for our Update March edition, which will contain the EUPROMS 2.0 survey results.