Special committee accepts changes on prostate cancer early detection

Members of the European parliament have supported new changes to proposals on the early detection of prostate cancer to be included in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

The European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) has been considering ways in which the Beating Cancer Plan, announced at the start of the year, can best be implemented. Several amendments had been proposed to the committee’s draft report, including one on the early detection of prostate cancer, supported by Europa Uomo and the European Association of Urology (EAU).

The amendment, which has now been passed unanimously by Members of the European Parliament, stresses the importance of new early detection techniques such as risk-stratification and risk calculation. It also specifically encourages EU member states to consider early detection of prostate cancer (along with lung cancer) when the European Commission’s update of the EU Cancer Screening Recommendations are published next year.

The BECA committee’s lead Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (pictured), a French oncologist and MEP, said the report had been written for patients, survivors, practitioners and researchers.

Responding to the amended BECA report, Sarah Collen, the EAU Policy Co-ordinator, said: “Importantly, the amendment calls for clear and tangible targets to be set by the European Commission on new cancers. This issue has currently been overlooked by the Commission, which has not included any targets on new cancers in their implementation plan of the EU Cancer Plan.”