From Our CEO - Prostate cancer: getting the attention it needs

 

On this year’s European Prostate Cancer Awareness Day, on 3 September, ECO joined forces with the European Association of Urology, EuropaUomo, and Global Action on Men’s Health to raise policymakers’ awareness of the burden of prostate cancer.

To mark the day we gathered experts, policymakers, and patient advocates at the European Parliament to discuss how improved prostate cancer screening is turning the tide for men in the EU, how can we address the uneven access to lifesaving tools, and how can decision-makers reenergise European action against prostate cancer.

Each year, an estimated 470,000 men across Europe are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 115,000 die from it. All too often, the diagnosis comes too late for effective treatment, and treatments available at that stage can have lasting side effects that severely diminish a man’s quality of life.  

And then there’s the price we all pay: prostate cancer costs Europeans more than € 9 billion each year, with € 5.8 billion in healthcare costs alone. Despite this staggering burden, most European countries still lack organised screening programmes. But the tide appears to be turning.

Three years ago, the Council of the European Union updated its cancer screening recommendations. For the first time, in addition to breast, cervical and colorectal cancers, the Council encouraged member states to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of screening for prostate, lung and gastric cancers – with PSA testing followed by MRI for prostate cancer.

This marked an important step forward – one that paved the way for the ambitious PRAISE-U project, funded by the European Union.

ECO is proud to be a consortium partner in PRAISE-U, building valuable synergies with other screening initiatives in Europe. The project promotes early detection through customised, risk-based screening programmes and supports the alignment of protocols and guidelines across member states. It also enables the collection and sharing of essential data to help reduce prostate cancer morbidity and mortality.

In the past, scientific evidence did not support broad prostate cancer screening. The harms associated with overdiagnosis and over-treatment were considered too great. Today, however, we have more precise tools to assess a man’s risk of this disease,  while the dangers of neglecting organised screening have become increasingly clear.

PRAISE-U is designed to give member states the practical tools they need to evaluate what works in their own settings. The next challenge will be to ensure that countries move from pilot projects to nationwide adoption.  At present, Lithuania is the only EU country with an organised, population-based prostate screening programme; elsewhere, efforts are regional or pilot-based.

The PRAISE-U pilots are currently underway in five sites: Ireland, Lithuania, Poland’s Lower Silesian region, and two regions of Spain (Galicia and Manresa). Each follows a shared protocol that covers invitations, PSA testing, MRI triage, and referral pathways for biopsy and treatment. This common framework will allow results to be compared across health systems.

The project runs from April 2023 to March/April 2026, so the first robust, cross-site results are due as initial screening rounds conclude this year, and the consortium completes its evaluation in 2026.

This is just a start, a long-awaited start. But we have much more to do if we are to make effective prostate cancer screening a reality across the EU.

With best wishes,

Elisabetta

Elisabetta Zanon