Prostate cancer treatment costs increase more rapidly than for any other cancer-how to reverse the trend?

According to GLOBOCAN, about 1.41 million new prostate cancer (PCa) cases were registered in the year 2020 globally. The corresponding socio-economic burden is enormous. Anti-cancer mRNA-based therapy is a promising approach, the principle of which is currently applied for anti-COVID-19 vaccination, undergoing a detailed investigation in populations considering its short- and long-term effectiveness and potential side effects. Pragmatically considered, it will take years or even decades to make mRNA therapy working for any type of cancers, and if possible, for individual malignancy sub-types which are many specifically for the PCa. Actually, the costs of treating PCa are increasing more rapidly than those of any other cancer. The trend has to be reversed now, not in a couple of years. In general, two main components are making currently applied reactive (management of clinically manifested disease) PCa treatment particularly expensive. On one hand, it is rapidly increasing incidence of the disease and metastatic PCa as its subtype. To this end, rapidly increasing PCa incidence rates in young and middle-aged male sub-populations should be taken into account as a long-term contributor to the metastatic disease potentially developed later on in life. On the other hand, patient stratification to differentiate between non-metastatic PCa (no need for an extensive and costly treatment) and particularly aggressive cancer subtypes requiring personalised treatment algorithms is challenging. Considering current statistics, it becomes obvious that reactive medicine got at its limit in PCa management. Multi-professional expertise is unavoidable to create and implement anti-PCa programmes in the population. In our strategic paper, we exemplify challenging PCa management by providing detailed expert recommendations for primary (health risk assessment), secondary (prediction and prevention of metastatic disease in PCa) and tertiary (making palliative care to the management of chronic disease) care in the framework of predictive, preventive and personalised medicine.

European Symposium on Precision Medicine in Allergy and Airways Diseases: Report of the European Union Parliament Symposium (October 14, 2015).

The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the European Rhinologic Society (ERS), and the European Medical Association (EMA) organized, on October 14, 2015, a symposium in the European Parliament in Brussels on Precision Medicine in Allergy and Airways Diseases, hosted by MEP David Borrelli, and with active participation of the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis, MEP Sirpa Pietikainen, Chair of the European Parliament Interest Group on Allergy and Asthma, the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the European Federations of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA), the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (Ga2len), Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impact on Asthma (ARIA), and the Respiratory Effectiveness Group (REG). The socioeconomic impact of allergies and chronic airways diseases cannot be underestimated, as they represent the most frequently diagnosed chronic noncommunicable diseases in the EU; 30% of the total European population is suffering from allergies and asthma, and more than half are deprived from adequate diagnosis and treatment. Precision medicine represents a novel approach, embracing four key features: personalized care based on molecular, immunologic, and functional endotyping of the disease, with participation of the patient in the decision-making process of therapeutic actions, and considering predictive and preventive aspects of the treatment. Implementation of precision medicine into clinical practice may help to achieve the arrest of the epidemic of allergies and chronic airways diseases. Participants underscored the need for optimal patient care in Europe, supporting joint action plans for disease prevention, patient empowerment, and cost-effective treatment strategies.

European symposium on precision medicine in allergy and airways diseases: report of the European Union parliament symposium (October 14, 2015).

On 14 October 2015, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the European Rhinologic Society (ERS) and the European Medical Association (EMA) organized a symposium in the European Parliament in Brussels on Precision Medicine in Allergy and Airways Diseases, hosted by MEP David Borrelli and with active participation of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), the European Federations of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA), the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (Ga2len), Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) and the Respiratory Effectiveness Group (REG). MEP Sirpa Pietikainen, Chair of the European Parliament Interest Group on Allergy and Asthma, underlined the importance of the need for a better diagnostic and therapeutic approach for patients with Allergies and Chronic Airways Diseases, and encouraged a joint initiative to control the epidemic of Allergy and Asthma in Europe. The socio-economic impact of allergies and chronic airways diseases cannot be underestimated, as they represent the most frequently diagnosed chronic non-communicable diseases in the EU. Despite the fact that 30% of the total European population is nowadays suffering from allergies and asthma, more than half of these patients are deprived from adequate diagnosis and treatment. Precision Medicine represents a novel approach in medicine, embracing 4 key features: personalized care based on molecular, immunologic and functional endotyping of the disease, with participation of the patient in the decision making process of therapeutic actions, and taking into account predictive and preventive aspects of the treatment. Implementation of Precision Medicine into clinical practice may help to achieve the arrest of the Epidemic of Allergies and Chronic Airways Diseases. This report summarizes the key messages delivered during the symposium by the speakers, including the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vitenys Andriukaitis. The Commissioner underscored the need for optimal patient care in Europe, supporting joint action plans for disease prevention, patient empowerment and cost-effective treatment strategies leading to a better health status of European citizens.

Needlestick injuries in European nurses in diabetes.

AIM: With the June 2010 publication of EU Council Directive 2010/32/EU scrutiny is now being focused on the safety and protection of diabetes nurses. METHODS: We used a questionnaire to study the frequency and risks of Needlestick Injuries (NSI) associated with diabetic injections in European hospitals. 634 nurses participated from 13 western European countries and Russia. RESULTS: When patients with diabetes who self-inject at home are hospitalized injections are given always by the staff in 31% of cases, by the patients themselves where possible in 33%, initially by staff, then the patient takes over in 12% and both staff and patient throughout the stay in 21%. 86% of nurses said their hospitals had a written policy on the prevention of NSI but, where it was available, only 56% were familiar with it. 67% of the nurses had not attended any training on the prevention of NSI and only 13% had attended one in the last year. 7.1% of nurses report recapping needles and 5.9% report storing unprotected needles temporarily on a tray, trolley or cart. 32% of nurses report suffering a NSI while giving a diabetic injection at some point in the past. 29.5% of NSI occurred while recapping a used needle. 57% of nurses unscrew pen needles using their own fingers. In 80% cases the source patient's identity was known and the sharp item was "contaminated" (known previous percutaneous exposure to patient) in almost half the cases (43%). NSIs were reported to the proper authorities in only 2/3 of cases. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that frequent NSI occur in European nurses treating people with diabetes in hospital settings. These injuries are a source of possible infection despite the small size of diabetes needles. The introduction of safety-engineered medical devices has been shown to reduce the risk of injury. A new European Directive that has now come into force specifically stipulates that wherever there is risk of sharps injury, the user and all healthcare workers must be protected by adequate safety precautions, including the use of "medical devices incorporating safety-engineered protection mechanisms".