Cancerworld Magazine
  • About the Magazine
    • Editorial Team
    • Leadership and Management
    • Events
    • Magazine
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
    • Partnership
    • Supported contents
  • Media Corner
    • Journalist Cancer Guide
    • Cancer Journalism Award
    • Cancer Journalist Grant
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Cancerworld Magazine
Cancerworld Magazine
  • About the Magazine
    • Editorial Team
    • Leadership and Management
    • Events
    • Magazine
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
    • Partnership
    • Supported contents
  • Media Corner
    • Journalist Cancer Guide
    • Cancer Journalism Award
    • Cancer Journalist Grant
Cancerworld Magazine > News > Call-to-arms for Europe to provide essential paediatric anti-cancer medicines
  • News

Call-to-arms for Europe to provide essential paediatric anti-cancer medicines

  • 9 January 2023
  • Janet Fricker
Call-to-arms for Europe to provide essential paediatric anti-cancer medicines
Total
13
Shares
13
0
0
0
0

A European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE) project has defined 66 anticancer medicines considered essential for treatment of children with cancer. The study, published in The Lancet Oncology, 23 December 2022, represents the first pan-European effort to systematically analyse the definition of essential anticancer medicines for children, tailored to the realities of European health-systems.

“With the results from this project, we aim to support medical staff, patient and parent organisations, governments and other stakeholders by providing this list of essential anticancer medicines,” write the authors, led by Maria Otth, from the University Children’s Hospital Zurich. “The list can additionally be used for negotiations to advocate and ensure continuous access to those medicines.” Developed purely from the medical perspective, consideration was not given to the financial cost of agents.

Cancer remains the first cause of death by disease in Europe in children older than one year, with SIOPE reporting on their website that each year more than 35,000 cases are diagnosed and over 6,000 young patients die. In 2018, SIOPE undertook a pan-European survey of 34 different countries to assess the availability of 68 anticancer medicines used to treat children and found that only 30 (44%) were available continuously in more than 90% of participating countries.

The aim of the current SIOPE Essential Anti- Cancer Medicines Project was to produce a list of anticancer medicines that are considered essential in the treatment of paediatric cancers to ensure their continuous access across Europe. “Medicine shortages can jeopardise the survival of children and adolescents with cancer,” write the authors. A secondary aim was to submit the information collected to the World Health Organization (WHO) Essential Medicines List for Children (EMLc), for assessment under the global viewpoint and to inform expansion of the WHO EMLc.

For the study SIOPE formed 16 working groups on the basis of paediatric cancer types with the working groups consisting of representatives from the SIOPE Clinical Trials Groups, Young SIOPE members and senior paediatric oncology experts. The working groups identified 73 treatment protocols used in Europe from reviews of currently used treatment protocols and existing literature for their type of cancer and identified medicines considered essential.

Altogether, the working groups identified 66 anticancer medicines and five supportive-care medicines, which included all-trans retinoic acid, alemtuzumab, bleomycin, cytarabine, dasatinib, everolimus, irinotecan, methotrexate, prednisolone, rituximab, topotecan, vincristine, and vinorelbine. Most of these agents have been used for decades and are well established.

Additionally, 25 drugs were considered promising, including bendamustine, blinatumumomab, sunitinib, sorafenib, tisagenlecleucel, topotecan, vandertanib and vermurafenib. Some of these drugs had only recently been granted marketing authorisations for paediatric indications (eg, kinase inhibitors and tisagenlecleucel); while in other cases the supporting evidence was insufficient despite their use in daily practice (eg, irinotecan for liver tumours).

The EMLc list, published in 2017, which gets updated every two years, included 22 (33%) of the 66 defined by the SIOPE analysis to be essential, and none of those defined as ‘promising’. However, the eighth edition of the EMLc list, published in 2021, included two new medicines, everolimus and vinorelbine, following applications made as a result of the SIOPE project.
“The results of this project could help to serve the needs of children and adolescents with cancer in Europe, support and guide stakeholders in the field of paediatric oncology, and reflect the current standard of care,” conclude the authors. New findings from clinical trials and the development of new treatment protocols and medicines, they add, will require the project to be regularly updated.

In an accompanying commentary, Avram Denburg, from The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, writes, “The authors rightly envision their list both as a practical call-to-arms for European countries and an ideal to which a broader range of health systems can aspire.”

However, he adds, a key question is the degree to which findings retain relevance beyond Europe. Essential medicine lists are necessary, he acknowledges, but beyond lists there is a need for translation of clinical priorities into sustained and equitable access. “Health-system research to detail context-specific barriers and facilitators along the pharmaceutical value chain will prove crucial to the design of policies to improve access to essential paediatric cancer medicines in varied health systems globally,” Denburg writes. In Europe, he adds, there is need for comparative analyses of regulation and health technology assessments of paediatric medicines, at both national and regional levels, to better characterise the structural and procedural conditions affecting market approval and reimbursement. “Value-based assessments of novel anticancer agents for paediatric indications will need to account for unique evidentiary and social-value considerations attached to child health and illness, including through the development of child-tailored health technology assessment frameworks.”

Total
13
Shares
Share 13
Tweet 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Essential cancer medicines
  • European Society for Paediatric Oncology
  • health technology assessments
  • SIOPE
  • WHO Model list of Essential medicines for children
Janet Fricker

Janet Fricker is a medical writer specialising in oncology and cardiology. After researching articles for Cancerworld she runs, swims, and eats porridge.

Previous Article
  • News

Exercise-stimulated myokine production can extend survival in advanced prostate cancer

  • 9 January 2023
  • Janet Fricker
View Post
Next Article
  • Supported contents

AI application in diagnosis

  • 11 January 2023
  • Adriana Albini
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • News

Study highlights need to reanalyse genomics and genetics of metastatic tumours

  • Janet Fricker
  • 27 January 2023
View Post
  • News

Current cervical cancer screening paradigm fails older women

  • Janet Fricker
  • 26 January 2023
View Post
  • News

Exercise-stimulated myokine production can extend survival in advanced prostate cancer

  • Janet Fricker
  • 9 January 2023
View Post
  • News

Five San Antonio take-aways to improve care of breast cancer patients

  • Janet Fricker
  • 16 December 2022
View Post
  • News

Repurposed drug combination reduces risk of recurrence following surgery for colorectal cancer

  • Janet Fricker
  • 16 December 2022
View Post
  • News

Aerobic activity to outcompete metastasis 

  • Janet Fricker
  • 2 December 2022
View Post
  • News

Ending cancer inequalities: European summit showcases new tools to inform policy

  • Anna Wagstaff
  • 30 November 2022
View Post
  • News

Biological differences revealed between dense and nondense breast tissue

  • Janet Fricker
  • 16 November 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

search
or search in Cancerworld archive
Newsletter

Subscribe free to
Cancerworld!

We'll keep you informed of the latest features and news with a fortnightly email

Subscribe now
Latest News
  • Study highlights need to reanalyse genomics and genetics of metastatic tumours
    • 27 January 2023
  • Current cervical cancer screening paradigm fails older women
    • 26 January 2023
  • Call-to-arms for Europe to provide essential paediatric anti-cancer medicines
    • 9 January 2023
  • Exercise-stimulated myokine production can extend survival in advanced prostate cancer
    • 9 January 2023
  • Five San Antonio take-aways to improve care of breast cancer patients
    • 16 December 2022
Article
  • The cancer patients still struggling to access drugs in the wake of anti-corruption reforms
    • 27 January 2023
  • Immunotherapy: outcomes of ultra low-dose trial offer hope for better global access
    • 26 January 2023
  • Cervical cancer elimination efforts boosted by simpler ways to identify and treat pre-cancerous lesions
    • 12 January 2023
Latest printed issue
Social

Would you follow us ?

Contents
  • Hansjörg Senn of St Gallen: A practice-changing career
    • 3 February 2023
  • AI in Genomics and Reporting for Clinical Practice
    • 26 January 2023
  • Telemedicine in Cancer Care: Monitoring, Follow-Up,Tele-Rehabilitation, Palliative and Supportive Care
    • 23 January 2023
MENU
  • About the Magazine
    • Editorial Team
    • Leadership and Management
    • Events
    • Magazine
    • Archive
    • Contacts
  • Articles
    • Policy
    • Practice Points
    • Delivery of Care
    • Biology basic
    • Medicine
    • Featured
  • Contents
    • News
    • Editorials
    • Interviews to the Expert
    • In the Hot Seat
    • Profiles
    • Obituaries
    • Voices
    • Partnership
    • Supported contents
  • Media Corner
    • Journalist Cancer Guide
    • Cancer Journalism Award
    • Cancer Journalist Grant
Cancerworld Magazine
  • About the Magazine
  • Articles
  • Media Corner
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Cancerworld is funded by SPCC Sharing Progress in Cancer Care | Via Vincenzo Vela 6, 6500 Bellinzona - Switzerland | info@spcc.net

Archivio Cancerworld

Input your search keywords and press Enter.