Denis Horgan: Unfortunate situation severely hampers European Union’s efforts to combat cancer
Denis Horgan, shared a post on Linkedin :
“Can we bridge the divide by addressing discrepancies between clinical guidelines, policy guidelines, and biomarker utilization?
Brussels, July 31st, 2024: The provision of cancer care in Europe is plagued by a troubling disconnect between clinical guidelines and policy guidelines. This unfortunate situation severely hampers the effectiveness of the European Union’s efforts to combat cancer, leaving many countries with inadequate healthcare services.
Despite considerable investment by the EU to improve cancer care, many agreed-upon approaches are falling short due to the persistence of various healthcare actors who insist on pursuing their own, oftentimes untested, paths. This disregard for the consensus reached within the medical community regarding best practices in diagnosis and treatment undermines the overall quality of care provided to cancer patients.
This paper’s analysis of the adoption of medical guidelines in healthcare – or failure to do so – permits some conclusions, country by country, on diagnostic performance. The paper concludes that policy decisions should give greater consideration to clinical guidelines. It specifically highlights the disparity between Western and Eastern European countries in terms of biomarker testing for established cancers.
Germany, France, and other long-standing EU member states consistently demonstrate high utilization of biomarker testing, while eastern member states generally have lower utilization. This discrepancy highlights the unequal access to advanced diagnostics, which is closely tied to inadequate infrastructure.
The current approach neglects the proven potential of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and liquid biopsy, despite clear recommendations from the medical community such as ESMO guidelines.
The analysis reveals a distinct pattern – a “two Europes” scenario. Western European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, UK, Sweden, Belgium) generally demonstrate higher utilization of biomarker testing. Here, cancers like Melanoma (BRAF mutation testing), Breast Cancer (HER2, ER, PR testing), and Lung Cancer (EGFR, PD-L1 testing) showcase impressive adoption rates.
For instance, BRAF mutation testing in Melanoma is commonplace (score 4) across these nations. Similarly, Breast Cancer diagnosis heavily relies on HER2, ER, and PR testing, with near-universal adoption (score 4). Lung Cancer treatment decisions are heavily influenced by EGFR and PD-L1 testing, both showing high utilization (score 4) across these regions.”
Source : Denis Horgan/Linkedin