ECPC wants to contribute to raise awareness about bladder cancer. The White Paper to be launched on 20 April 2016 is an appeal to policy makers, the scientific and medical community to reduce the burden of bladder cancer on patients.

Rationale of the initiative

The idea of this initiative came from ECPC member organization PaLiNUro from Italy that contacted us in 2015 signaling that “while information and patient support is far advanced in many solid tumours, it is still lacking for bladder cancer”. They also suggested ECPC that “a strategy aimed at joining efforts under a common platform would bring advances in the field”. It was PaLiNUro making a research identifying the active patient groups in Europe and it was still PaLiNUro that put us in touch with Andrew Winterbottom, Founder and Director of Fight Bladder Cancer that in the meanwhile became a full member of ECPC and the coordinator of ECPC activities devoted to bladder cancer. ECPC will always react to such proposals coming from our member organisations.

In line with ECPC strategy, our organisation established an expert group made up of 14 top bladder cancer experts, urologists as well as representaties from patient organisations such as Action Bladder Cancer UK, Fight Bladder Cancer UK, Associazione PaLiNUro, Italy. The Paper was drafted by ECPC Expert Group on Bladder Cancer.

Agenda of the event

Lunch from 12.30 - 13.00

13.00 – 13.10 Challenges related to bladder cancer

Daciana Sarbu, S&D MEP

13.10 – 13.20 European Parliament Call to Action on Bladder Cancer

Andrey Kovatchev, EPP MEP

13.20 – 13.30 EC: cancer research priorities

Maria-Jose Vidal-Ragout, Head of Unit, DG Research (tbc)

13.30 – 13.45 Trends in prostate and bladder cancer treatments

Prof Dr Morgan Roupret, Chirurgien des Hôpitaux, MD, PhD, Hôpital Pitié-Salpétrière, Université Paris 6

13.45 – 14.00 Immunotherapies: Boosting bladder cancer research

Andrea Necchi, MD, Department of Medical Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan

14.00 – 14.15 High hopes for advances in bladder cancer treatment

Professor Hein van Poppel, EAU Adjunct-Secretary General

14.15 – 14.30 Discussion on the presentations made so far

14.30 – 14.40 Living with the fear of relapse

Andrew Winterbottom, Founder and Director, Fight Bladder Cancer UK

14.40 – 14.55 Strategy of disseminating ECPC White Paper at member state level

Prof. De Lorenzo, President of ECPC

14.55 – 15.30 Discussion and wrap up conclusions

Location : Hotel RENAISSANCE
Contact : mihaela.militaru@ecpc.org