The TITAN study was set up to find out whether combining apalutamide with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) worked better at treating advanced prostate cancer than ADT alone. The results that showed that apalutamide plus ADT increased the length of time that participants remained alive compared with placebo plus ADT. Apalutamide plus ADT also controlled the growth of the cancer for  longer ompared with placebo plus ADT A. plain language summary of the TITAN study is now available.

A Cancerworld article, ‘Increasing cardiorespiratory fitness reduces risk of prostate cancer‘ confirms again the importance of physical exercise. A Swedish study says that exercise and fitness have positive effects on the body’s immune response, promoting favourable body composition, reducing systemic inflammation and having a positive effect on hormones that contribute to the anti-cancer effect.

Stockholm3  is a blood test that combines protein biomarkers, genetic biomarkers, clinical data, and a proprietary algorithm to predict the risk of aggressive prostate cancer at an early stage. The Swedish Capio Prostate Cancer Center in Stockholm uses the test for men with PSA values above 1.5 ng/ml to detect prostate cancer early and minimise unnecessary MRIs and biopsies.

A recently published article reports how using Stockholm3 significantly improves diagnostic precision, reduces overdiagnosis, enables diagnosis at low PSA levels and streamlines resource utilisation.

Europa Uomo is again actively involved in the annual EAU congress in Paris. Here is a day-by-day overview.

° April 5th:

– Marko Koivuneva, is participating in a roundtable session on inflammatory bladder during the EAU Patient Day.

– Günther Carl and Erik Briers are participating in the EAU-PO shared decision making consensus meeting.

– Europa Uomo will have an in-person Board meeting.

° April 6th:

– Günther Carl will:

• give a presentation on “Patients’ perspective of risk-adapted screening strategy in Europe” in a plenary session
• give a presentation on “The patient advocate’s perspective” in the 10th ESO prostate cancer observatory
• participate in the AstraZeneca symposium on metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

– Erik Briers will present on ‘The patient engagement in EAU data initiatives – why it is essential?” in a thematic session.

– Lionne Vendersbos (Eramus MC) will present our EUPROMS abstract: ‘The impact of prostate cancer ADT and EBRT follow-up treatment on patient-reported quality of life – results from the EUPROMS 2.0 follow-up study”.

– Europa Uomo will have a small reception to celebrate our 20th anniversary and thank the invited persons for their support of Europa Uomo.

° On April 7th:

– Günther Carl will attend the EAU Nurses session.

– Erik Briers will give a presentation on “Active surveillance vs focal therapy in intermediate-risk diseases – the patient perspective” in a thematic session on the impact of the EAU prostate cancer guidelines.

– André Deschamps will present “Living with a prostate cancer patient: real world evidence from the unprecedented Europa Uomo Prostate cancer Partners in Europe Research (EU-ProPER) study”

Europa Uomo will also have a booth at the exhibition and will have several meetings with sponsors to discuss current and future projects.

On Wednesday, 20th March 2024, from 5m to 6 pm CET, Europa Uomo will hold a new Zoom webinar entitled: “A urine test to identify patients with clinically significant prostate cancer“. The webinar will be led by Cosimo Pieri  and Tania Estapé, both Europa Uomo Board members.

The speaker is  Sergio Occhipinti, CEO of NIB Biotec, who will speak on: “Risk for real prostate cancer? A smart urine test to check it”.

To register in advance for this meeting, please contact info@europa-uomo.org.

The European Cancer Organisation is running a survey, available in 17 languages, gathering input on daily challenges during and after cancer treatments. This is part of the smartCARE project, funded by the European Union, which is developing a digital app to help patients better navigate some of these obstacles and improve wellbeing.

Most people who have cancer are older people, affecting millions of Europeans each year. It is essential to provide high-quality, equitable and cost-effective care across the continuum of supportive, palliative, end-of-life and survivorship care for both patients and caregivers.

The EU Navigate project aims at evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of navigation programmes to help older people and their families access needed resources and services, while providing companionship and support.

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