Movember launches global collaborative program for personalised active surveillance
We're bringing together healthcare professionals, researchers and those with lived experience of prostate cancer in a global bid to understand the best way to care for men on active surveillance (AS).
The new collaboration aims to understand how to reduce unnecessary tests and treatments for men at lowest risk of disease progression, so that more men opt to choose AS as their first choice of management.
We've launched a funding call to the prostate cancer research community, inviting ideas that have the potential to personalise the way in which men are monitored for signs of disease progression after a prostate cancer diagnosis.
The new program, which has an investment of AUD $3-5 million, is the second program launched as part of Movember’s Global Cancer Real World Evidence Network.
The Network brings together a large group of hospitals and research institutions across 19 countries to accelerate improvements in the survival and quality of life of men living with prostate and testicular cancer.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men; globally more than 1.4 million men were diagnosed with the disease in 2019. As many as 80% of men are diagnosed with a localised, low-risk disease that does not require active treatment such as surgery or radiotherapy. The majority of these men can be carefully selected and monitored using a management approach called AS and be spared the long-term side effects associated with active treatments.
" Up to 80% of men are diagnosed with a low-risk disease that does not require active treatment such as surgery or radiotherapy. "
Active surveillance was first described two decades ago as a management approach for men with low-risk disease. AS involves ongoing monitoring of the disease including the use of interval biopsy, Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) tests and imaging for signs that the disease is spreading.
Over the past 20 years, a number of pivotal research studies have shown that AS is a safe, long-term option for men with low-risk and some intermediate-risk disease compared to active treatments such as surgery.
Although this research has led to a change in the way most clinicians diagnose and treat low-risk disease, it remains unclear exactly how AS should be implemented based on factors associated with an individual’s risk of the disease spreading.
This unmet need was recently identified and prioritised by a global panel of over 40 healthcare professionals and those with lived experience of prostate cancer in a project funded by Movember (unpublished).
Understanding how to implement a personalised, dynamic, risk-adapted approach to AS so that more men will no longer need to undergo unnecessary tests and treatments is a priority for Movember.
Dr Lauren King, Scientific Program Manager at Movember, said: “Movember exists to help those with prostate cancer live happier, healthier, longer lives. Building on decades of research, that led to the introduction of standardised approaches to active surveillance, which are safe and have good long-term outcomes for men, we believe that the next era for active surveillance is in delivering a personalised approach. We urgently need a unified approach, based on an individual’s risk of disease progression, to reduce unnecessary tests and treatments, and lower the burden of surveillance for individuals and society.”
An independent advisory committee will be appointed to review the responses and, following an extensive review process, it is expected that successful global team(s) will be notified in December 2022.
For more information on submitting an expression of interest for the program, please visit https://movember.com/about/funding.