Brussels/Arnhem, 25 April 2023 – The EU4Health programme has approved PRAISE-U (PRostate cancer Awareness and Initiative for Screening in the European Union), an ambitious three-year project involving 25 institutions from 12 countries. PRAISE-U’s mission is to design a nationally-tailored cost-effective early detection algorithm for prostate cancer screening in the EU to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by prostate cancer while avoiding overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
Prostate cancer is the number 1 and 2 cancer killing men in northern and western Europe respectively. It is the most frequent male cancer in Europe with important consequences for healthcare systems. Every year, around 450,000 European men are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Delayed diagnosis can lead to higher rates of metastasised disease, which is a disease state that coincides with a high mortality rate and a prolonged negative impact on the quality of life. It has been shown that organised repeated screening results in early detection that can reduce suffering and dying from prostate cancer.1 Modern tools and strategies can streamline the process to detect cancer when it poses a threat to the patient.
In direct partnership with a network of consortium members, PRAISE-U works to encourage early detection and diagnosis of prostate cancer in EU Member States through smart early detection and stimulate the implementation of early detection programmes in Member States. By aligning protocols and guidelines across Member States and enabling the collection and analysis of relevant data, the project aims to reduce prostate cancer morbidity and mortality rates in Europe with customised and risk-based screening programmes.
Prof. Hein Van Poppel, chair of the EAU Policy Office: “The diagnostic pathway for prostate cancer has improved tremendously over the past decades2. PRAISE-U marks a new era in early detection of prostate cancer. Through this project, we want to provide clear guidelines and quality assurance tools that can be used by pilot sites to demonstrate that risk based approaches are effective, feasible, acceptable and cost effective. In our consortium, we have a strong partnership with the right mix of international academic experts, healthcare professionals, social scientists, economists, patients and health system pilot sites to make this a success.”
To achieve PRAISE-U’s goals a multi-disciplinary consortium centred around Europe’s leading clinicians and researchers in prostate cancer has been established. The consortium includes experts in prostate cancer and decision making – amongst others the European Randomized study of Screening for Prostate Cancer -, and a network of hospitals, medical societies, patient advocates and national authorities.
The PRAISE-U project is broken down into six work packages. The four core WPs are designed to gather knowledge, develop protocols for screening programs, pilot test the developed protocols, and evaluate the results. The two overarching WPs provide a framework for the entire project and include coordinating the project and disseminating the results. Each WP builds on the work of the previous one, and together they contribute to the ultimate goal of developing a strategy that will reduce prostate cancer morbidity and mortality while minimizing overdiagnosis.
On 25-26th of April, more than 50 members of PRAISE-U participated in the kick-off event for a new Pan-European prostate cancer screening initiative in Brussels.
About PRAISE-U
PRAISE-U (PRostate cancer Awareness and Initiative for Screening in the European Union) is a multi-disciplinary consortium centred around Europe’s leading clinicians and researchers in prostate cancer that aims to reduce morbidity and mortality caused by prostate cancer through smart early detection by designing a cost-effective early detection algorithm for EU Prostate Cancer Screening. For more information check www.uroweb.org/praise-u.
Sources: 1. Hugosson, J., Roobol, M. J., Månsson, M., Tammela, T. L., Zappa, M., Nelen, V., … & Auvinen, A. (2019). A 16-yr Follow-up of the European Randomized study of Screening for Prostate Cancer. European urology, 76(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2019.02.009 2. Van Poppel, H., Albreht, T., Basu, P., Hogenhout, R., Collen, S., & Roobol, M. (2022). Serum PSA-based early detection of prostate cancer in Europe and globally: past, present and future. Nature reviews. Urology, 19(9), 562–572. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41585-022-00638-6.