Improving quality in prostate cancer care through personalised diagnostic testing – Educational project 2025/2026
Background
Personalised diagnostic tests are used to tailor strategies for patient-specific disease detection, treatment, or prevention. Molecular unique features of each patient and his tumour (i.e. gene alterations, protein expression levels) could act as indicators for treatment selection or disease prognosis, with significant potential impact on the quality of life as well.
Applications of germline/somatic molecular testing and biochemical markers have become a critical component of prostate cancer care. Indeed, they are now used for risk assessment, choice of treatment, prognosis and disease follow up. In addition, molecular imaging and pharmacogenomic tests could offer further advantages, to achieve a more comprehensive knowledge of the disease.
To ensure that all men benefit from those strategies, personalised medicine should be validated in different cohorts of prostate cancer patients, in order to guarantee equitable access to all of them.
Format
Given the significance of enhancing the quality of prostate cancer care through personalised diagnostic testing, Sharing Progress in Cancer Care is carrying out a targeted project which foresees two stages:
- A closed in-person task force, which will be held on 12th June 2025
- A manuscript summarising the most important outcomes of the task force
Faculty
Chairs
Anders Bjartell, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, SE
Hendrik Van Poppel, EAU Policy Office Chairman, KU Leuven, BE
Experts
Bernardo Bonanni, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, IT
Alberto Bossi, Gustave Roussy Cancer Institute, Villejuif, FR
Erik Briers, ESR Patient Advisory Group and Europa Uomo, Antwerp, BE
Eva Compérat, Medical University Vienna, AT
Ken Herrmann, Universitätsklinikum Essen, DE
Key points
- Molecular features, what defines an HRR-panel, HRR gene hierarchy and specific biomarker value.
- Germline and somatic testing for homologous repair deficiency in patients with prostate cancer.
- Therapeutic implications of homologous repair deficiency testing in patients with prostate cancer.
- Articulate gaps/unmet need and impact of suboptimal diagnostics/lack of biomarker-directed treatment; overcome certain barriers to integrate genetic and biomarker testing into clinical practice.
- Opinion on the utilization of germline and somatic testing to detect HRR alterations in patients with mCRPC and mCSPC.
- Optimization of mCRPC treatment selections.
- Role of urologists in precision medicine: educational & infrastructure needs and solutions.
- Adoption of germline testing in all patients with prostate cancer and for somatic mutations testing in patients at the time of recurrent/metastatic disease.
- Molecular features (gene alterations, protein expression levels).
Next steps
Further information about the Task Force programme, its developments, and the upcoming paper will be made available on this page at a later stage.