BJMO - volume 17, issue 8, december 2023
H. Prenen MD, PhD, H. Oliveres MD, T. Vandamme MD, PhD
The European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) annual meeting, which took place in Madrid, featured important clinical updates in cancer treatment and research. This article summarises the takeaways for the gastrointestinal oncology community.
(Belg J Med Oncol 2023;17(8):319–22)
Read moreBJMO - volume 17, issue 6, october 2023
M. Piccart MD, PhD, J. Vansteenkiste MD, PhD, H. Prenen MD, PhD, F. Duhoux MD, PhD, A. Janssens MD, PhD, M. Delforge MD, PhD, A. Awada MD, PhD, P. Neven MD, PhD, A. Sibille MD, B. Neyns MD, PhD
The oncological treatment landscape is evolving at a very rapid pace with a continuous stream of novel treatment options. To fully leverage these therapeutic advances in clinical practice it is important to facilitate a rapid access to innovative anticancer drugs for patients. Specifically for Belgium, the delay from EMA approval to reimbursement for anticancer drugs is very long, with an average of almost 600 days, and a substantial proportion of innovative drugs never make it to the patient. The stringent focus of the Belgian Commission for Reimbursement of Medicines (CRM) on overall survival (OS) data in reimbursement decisions is believed to be an important contributor to this situation. However, the ever-increasing pace at which new anticancer therapies are being developed in combination with an earlier detection of cancer will make it increasingly difficult to present mature OS data at the time of regulatory approval in the years to come. As such, there is an urgent need for a debate with the regulators to consider more readily available endpoints in their reimbursement assessments. In fact, when a strong treatment effect is seen on an intermediate endpoint such as disease-free or progression-free survival, a benefit in OS is quite likely. As such, our reimbursement system needs to be adapted to better align with the scientific progress in oncology. In this, a temporary reimbursement decision based on intermediate endpoints could give Belgian patients earlier access to promising lifesaving medicines. In this, we as oncologists, including specialists in haematology, respiratory oncology, and gastrointestinal cancer, strongly encourage the CRM to use the grading provided by the ESMO magnitude of clinical benefit scale to evaluate the clinical added value of future cancer treatments. This will not only facilitate a faster patient access to innovative therapies, but will also help policy-makers in advancing ‘accountability for reasonableness’ in their resource allocation deliberations.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2023;17(6):211–5)
Read moreBJMO - volume 17, issue 5, september 2023
H. Prenen MD, PhD
The annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting always features the best scientific advances in cancer treatment and research. This year, one of the abstracts in the field of gastro-intestinal cancer was even selected for the plenary session, the meeting’s highlight. The takeaways for the oncology community are summarised in this report.
(Belg J Med Oncol 2023;17(5):178–82)
Read moreBJMO - volume 16, issue 8, december 2022
B. Geerinckx MD, C. Lambrechts MD, H. Oliveres MD, H. Prenen MD, PhD, T. Vandamme MD, PhD
The European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022 was held in Paris, France, between the 9th and 13th of September 2022. The main goal of this overview is to highlight the most relevant findings in the field of digestive oncology that could impact daily clinical practice. First, the upper gastrointestinal tract tumours will be discussed, followed by an overview of the congress highlights related to cancers of the lower gastrointestinal tract.
(Belg J Med Oncol 2022;16(8):412–20)
Read moreBJMO - volume 16, issue 5, september 2022
H. Oliveres MD, T. Vandamme MD, PhD, H. Prenen MD, PhD
The 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting was held in Chicago, USA, between the 3rd and 7th of June 2022. The main goal of this overview is to highlight the most striking abstracts in the field of digestive oncology for daily clinical practice. First, the upper gastro-intestinal tract tumours will be discussed, followed by an overview of the congress highlights related to cancers of the lower gastro-intestinal tract.
(Belg J Med Oncol 2022;16(5):223–8)
Read moreBJMO - volume 16, issue 2, march 2022
D. Naudts MD, L-A. Teuwen MD, PhD, J. Van Boven , H. Prenen MD, PhD, T. Vandamme MD, PhD, B. Van Overberghe MD, K. Forceville MD, M. Peeters MD, PhD
5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) and its prodrug capecitabine are widely used and generally well-tolerated chemotherapeutic agents. Although leucovorin, a derivative of folic acid, is routinely used to potentiate the effect of 5-FU, there seems to be little to no awareness about a similar interplay between capecitabine and folic acid, a commonly used supplement. This study presents a case in which a high concentration of folic acid led to fatal capecitabine-related toxicity, with the aim to raise awareness on the interaction between folic acid supplementation and 5-FU/capecitabine treatment toxicity.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2022;16(2):74–8)
Read moreBJMO - volume 15, issue 8, december 2021
H. Dedecker MD, L-A. Teuwen MD, PhD, T. Vandamme MD, PhD, H. Prenen MD, PhD, M. Peeters MD, PhD
The 2021 edition of ESMO was held virtually between the 16th and 21st of September 2021. The main goal of this overview is to highlight the most striking abstracts in the field of digestive oncology for daily clinical practice. First, the upper gastro-intestinal tract tumours will be discussed, followed by an overview of the congress highlights related to cancers of the lower gastro-intestinal tract.
(BELG J MED ONCOL 2021;15(5):415–20)
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