Elsevier

Lung Cancer

Volume 74, Issue 3, December 2011, Pages 544-548
Lung Cancer

Meeting report
Treatment decision-making for advanced non-small cell lung cancer and differences among European countries: 1st AIOT-ETOP meeting

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lungcan.2011.08.013Get rights and content

Abstract

Introduction

The Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology (AIOT) and the European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP) realized the first conjunct educational meeting, open to European oncologists involved in the treatment of thoracic malignancies, entitled “Advanced non-small cell lung cancer: new perspectives in first-line setting”.

Methods

The educational meeting included 8 interactive talks, held by European key opinion leaders, and 5 related clinical cases in which the attendees, divided in working tables based on their country origin, were involved for interactive discussion. The aim of this course was to elucidate the differences or similarities among the European countries in the first-line treatment of patients affected by advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Results

Twenty-two attendees of the following countries participated: Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Swiss, and UK. As expected, some discrepancies between the groups were identified concerning the approach to the diagnostic phase, the choice of first-line regimen, the duration of treatment and the use of maintenance therapy. These discrepancies were mainly due to familiarity with specific therapies and lack of access to certain therapies due to local regulatory issues.

Conclusion

The European Medicine Agency grants marketing of drugs in all Europe, regulatory agency of each country can register the drug, but can also deny public reimbursement thus restricting the options of the oncologist. The European Oncology Associations should join to their effort to achieve a uniform access to the cancer therapy for all patients in Europe.

Introduction

European Thoracic Oncology Platform (ETOP: www.etop-eu.org) is an association found in 2009 with the aims to serve as a developing platform for European study groups and institutions involved in the diagnosis and treatment of thoracic malignancies to foster clinical and translational research and educational activities. Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology (AIOT: www.oncologiatoracica.it) is an association founded in July 2007, in order to improve knowledge and research in the field of thoracic oncology in Italy through cooperation among oncologists, radiotherapists, surgeons and researchers.

Within the activities promoted by AIOT is to realize educational meetings characterized by high interactivity between attendants and faculty. In this context, AIOT and ETOP associations decided to realize the first conjunct meeting, open to European oncologists, entitled “Advanced non-small cell lung cancer: new perspectives in first-line setting” held in Italy on May 13–14, 2011. Here, we report the meeting results.

Section snippets

Methods

European oncologists, selected by key opinion leader in the field of lung cancer in each country, were invited to attend the meeting and were divided in working tables based on their country origin. The meeting included 8 interactive talks, held by European key opinion leaders, concerning the role of bronchoscopic diagnosis, histology, standard first-line chemotherapy, personalized therapy (pemetrexed, bevacizumab, epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors [EGFR-TKIs]), and

Results

Twenty-two attendees, all involved in the treatment of lung cancer, coming from Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Swiss and UK, were divided in working tables based on their country origin. We present the results accordingly to the discussed 5 clinical cases.

Discussion

This meeting gave the possibility to exchange clinical experiences in the management of advanced NSCLC patients in different European countries. Analysing the answers to the clinical cases coming from each country we can draw the following considerations. The emerging role of histology in the choice of first-line treatment of NSCLC calls for collecting an adequate tumour tissue sample to analyse and/or to perform adequate IHC analyses for a specific histotype diagnosis. Moreover, the tissue

Conflict of interest statement

Cesare Gridelli represents Speakers’ bureau and advisory board role for Eli Lilly, Roche; Rolf Stahel represents Speakers’ bureau and advisory board role for AstraZeneca, Bayer, BMS, Eli Lilly, GSK, Merck Serono, Merck Schweiz AG, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche; Enriqueta Felip represents Speakers’ bureau and advisory board role for Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck Serono, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim; Benjamin Besse, Fortunato Ciardiello, Stefano Gasparini, Paolo Graziano, Antonio Rossi and Filippo

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