#EAPM: 'לאָזן די אי.יו. שטערן שייַנען' פֿאַר זיפּונג פון לונג ראַק

Attendees at a Presidency Conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria yesterday (23 April) heard from three MEPs who have solidly backed action to have lung cancer screening guidelines developed in the EU, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borissov provided the welcome address which added his political support also.

At the event, MEP Andrey Kovatchev told stakeholders: “Everyone in this room knows now that personalised medicine is not just an idea, it is the new reality. And there is no doubt that screening and early diagnosis has a huge role to play in its development and growth.

“All of us here today in our many different ways, are working towards putting screening and early diagnosis firmly into the mainstream.”

The MEP also outlined his ‘Let the Stars Shine’ initiative and said: “EU challenges are predominantly cross-border. It will be our member states that will, hand-in-hand with neighbours, protect citizens in these trying times.”

The MEP added: “Traditional medicine is the bedrock, the solid and strong foundation, on which we build the health of our citizens. And much of it has huge, huge value and is relevant today. But turning back the clock is not an option.”

“We must also embrace the new. The old and the new must meet, in the most effective way that we can manage. And we must take the best from each, and co-operate, and collaborate, and move medicine forward together.”

אַדווערטייזמאַנט

More than 100 high-level delegates and speakers attended the conference in Sofia which take, and the Alliance with its Bulgarian affiliate, and its sponsors believe that many of the ideas behind lung-cancer screening are good ones. After all, this is the biggest cancer killer of all we’re talking about.

Also speaking was Alojz Peterle MEP, who addressed the topic of personalized medicine and early diagnosis. He said: “Life-saving should be at the forefront of medicine. We need education, we need to work out how to share the data, we need the right legislative frameworks. We want to have a new vision. It is very clear that the next generation of earlier diagnosis is with us. We need to balance privacy and trans-ference of data – we need more EU – not less EU in this area.”

The Slovenia MEP and former prime minister added: “The focus on lung cancer screening today is that this area of science had developed so that evidence is here for Europe to take action. Europe’s health systems need to adapt quickly to allow early diagnosis to benefit patients and citizens. Lung cancer is the biggest killer of all cancers, responsible for al-most 270,000 annual deaths (some 21%).

He continued: “It is at the very least surprising that the biggest cancer killer of all does not have a solid set of screening guidelines across Europe.  We need action in this area."

Also speaking was Dr Giulia Veronesi, Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan who emphasized: “Europe needs to start planning for lung cancer CT Screening: To develop screening recommendations and guidelines and also assess how the service delivery will be undertaken in the differing health care systems throughout the EU.We have to recognize that neither can the cancer challenge be tackled by a single stakeholder nor be resolved by simple solutions. Dialogue is critical to support and drive the rapidly advancing science and deliver access to innovative diagnosis across Europe."

Meanwhile, Ciarán Nicholl, Head of the Health in Society Unit, ISPRA of the European Commission said: “We have an incredible set of new tools, but also incredible oppurtunities to supporting member states.”

Tit Albreht, head of the Centre for Health Care, National Institute of Public Health of Slovenia, told guests: “With the brilliance of the kind of people who are right now in this room, I’m confident that between us we can bring all of the wonderful innovation and technology into the EU’s healthcare systems speedily for the benefit of the patents everywhere.

“The title of this year’s conference in Sofia is ‘Lung cancer and early diagnosis – The evidence ex-ists for screening, and that title is apt. The challenge is huge. But the potential is even bigger."

Serban Ghiorghiu, VP, Clinical, Oncology, AstraZeneca said:  “As a science-led company, we are committed to eliminating lung cancer as a cause of death. We believe this will take innovation in treatment and in early detection and are proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with all the stakeholders in this conference as it’s only through partnership that the outcomes patients’ deserve can be delivered.”

EAPM Executive Director Denis Horgan spoke about the EAPM policy direction in this initative: “Two vital bottom-lines that access to such screening programmes should be equitable among the targeted population, and that benefit can be clearly shown to outweigh any harm.

"Of course, while calling for EU-wide standards and guidelines, we are aware that there is a huge variation in resources between wealthy and less-wealthy members of the EU 28. This discrepancy must be taken into account when formulating any consensus-based guidelines."

Jasmina Koeva, of the Bulgarian Alliance for Personalised and Precision Medicine said: “This Presidency Conference has been a huge success and perfectly sets the scene for taking action forward.

“To have so many high-level stakeholders here in Sofia is extremely gratifying and, as personalised medicine develops, we are delighted to have such formidable allies as we move forward with this fast-moving and exciting area of health care.”

Running during the auspices of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU, the conference pulled together leading experts in personalised medicine drawn from patient groups, payers, health-care professionals plus industry, science, academic and research representatives.