2023-11-09 17:15:47
Improve early diagnosis programs, offer active surveillance as the first treatment, implement the multidisciplinary approach in treatment centers. These are the key actions that emerge from Euproms, (Europa Uomo Patient Report Outcome Study), the survey promoted by Europa Uomo, conducted in 32 countries, carried out with the unconditional contribution of Novartis and presented today. The first large study ever carried out by the patients themselves for the patients – almost 5,500 subjects with an average age of 70 years – investigated the quality of life after treatments of those affected by prostate cancer, highlighting various critical areas in the therapeutic path on different aspects of the sexual, psychological and urinary domain.
Active treatments – surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormonal therapy – impact, in a different and more or less significant way, on the quality of life of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. For this reason it would be desirable, when possible, i.e. in specific cases, with minimal disease, to implement active surveillance as the first treatment to guarantee a better quality of life. However, when it is necessary to resort to invasive treatments, which have a greater impact on the quality of life, it is important that the patient is followed within treatment centers with great experience and equipped with a multidisciplinary team.
“There is too little talk about prostate cancer – states Maria Laura De Cristofaro, president of Europa Uomo Italia – while the Aiom (Italian Medical Oncology Association) data record a growth in cases and what is even more worrying is that the National Health Service ( Ssn) does not provide any screening program for this neoplasm. For this reason, the Euproms survey promoted by Europa Uomo at a European level takes on an important value. Key messages emerge from the survey – De Cristofaro lists – the importance of early diagnosis, all the more crucial given that prostate cancer shows no signs of occurring in its initial phase; the need to strengthen diagnostic-therapeutic pathways defined through the creation of Prostate Units within which the multidisciplinary team operates, the only one that can guarantee quality of care, avoid inadequate treatments and ensure a better quality of life, in addition to psychological support. The study also shows that active surveillance (a systematic plan of checks at defined intervals for low-risk prostate cancer) is the approach that best preserves patients’ quality of life.”
In light of the Euproms results, “the institutions” have moved “towards a historic initiative – continues De Cristofaro – to recommend screening programs at a European level, which are already being tested in some countries (Praise-U)”. Looking to the future, “Europa Uomo Italia intends to carry forward from today a series of actions aimed at building a continuous relationship with national and regional institutions. We will send – he continues – an open letter to the Presidency of the Council and we will ask to establish National Prostate Cancer Day, so that we continue to talk about men’s health”.
Prostate cancer – explains a note – represents 19.8% of all male tumors and is the most widespread among men, with 564 thousand registered patients and approximately 40,500 new cases per year. “In most cases (from 30% to 40%) it is low malignancy and survival is also optimal”, recalls Domenico Prezioso, associate professor of Urology, Department of Neurosciences, Reproductive Sciences and Odontostomatology, Federico II University of Naples, responsible of the Prostate Cancer Unit, Member of the European Men’s Scientific Committee. “Screenings carried out in the past on the over-fifties male population, on the basis of the knowledge available at the time, proved incapable of reducing mortality in the screened patient group, therefore they were no longer recommended. For some years, active surveillance has been recommended to these patients, i.e. periodic clinical and PSA checks without particular medical treatment, which allows them to live with the disease, ready to intervene with specific therapies should the clinical conditions show signs of improvement. progression”.
“On the basis of the data from our survey – underlines Cosimo Pieri, general secretary of Europa Uomo Italia, Representative for Italy on the board of Europa Uomo – The European Prostate Cancer Coalition – in September 2022, the European Parliament issued the Recommendation to the 27 EU countries to implement early diagnosis of prostate cancer as well” so that it does not evolve into metastatic cancer, “drastically worsening the quality of life of the patient and his family as well as requiring costs up to 20 times higher than the treatment of tumors in the initial stage. specific – recalls Pieri – given that in Italy this recommendation has only been implemented by the National Oncology Plan 2023-27, but for now not implemented, we ask that in Italy too, as already in several European countries, a pilot project be launched to define the national guidelines for organized prostate cancer screening”.
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