New ‘Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Glioma’

The European Cancer Organisation is proud to announce the release today of its ‘Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care: Glioma’.

Gliomas make up approximately 80% of all primary malignant brain tumours. However, management of this disease is heterogeneous across Europe, making a good quality framework essential.

The new document, crafted by European experts representing different disciplines, provides oncology teams, patients, policymakers, and managers with an overview of the critical elements needed in any healthcare system to establish high-quality glioma care.

Recognising that services and capacity vary from country to country, the expert group focused on identifying realistic requirements within the reach of all. These extend from organising care, timelines, and resources… to defining the roles and responsibilities within glioma teams.

"The management of primary brain tumours (i.e., gliomas) should be multi-disciplinary, with the input of various health professionals including but not limited to neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, neuro-radiologists, radiation oncologists and psychologists," said prof Damien Weber, co-chair of the paper and head of the Paul Scherrer Institute Center for Proton Therapy in Villigen, Switzerland. “Management of brain tumours should be patient-centred,” he added, “and should holistically include the input of various health professionals and the partners and caregivers within the patient’s familial ecosystem.”

This much-needed new document covers the entire patient journey in specialized neurosurgical and neuro-oncology centres that treat glioma patients on a daily basis.

"For comprehensive cancer control, it is imperative for national and local policy makers in healthcare across Europe to consider these requirements most seriously," said prof Alessandro Bozzao, co-chair of the paper and a professor of neuroradiology at Sapienza University in Rome. “These requirements should be reference points for Europe-wide initiatives to improve the quality of cancer care, such as Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the EU Mission on Cancer."

Together, these new requirements provide a vision of good practice and the steps necessary to achieve it.

Discover the new requirements here.