There is a need to improve the communication of the benefits and related uncertainties of anticancer drugs to patients and their clinicians, highlights an analysis of anticancer drugs granted a first marketing authorisation by the European Medicines Agency. Prof Jean-Yves Blay, ESMO’s Director of Public Policy, pointed out in his commentary of the study in The Lancet Oncology, that scientific information is essential for physicians’ and patients’ informed therapeutic decision-making. And as the level of scientific education across patients varies, the information should be easily accessible and didactic.
The study reviewed the quality of regulated information for patients and clinicians on 29 novel drugs for cancer treatment in Europe and found that the sources fail to address the information needs of patients. For example, the exact drug benefits, and the methodology of clinical trials were inconsistently reported across European Public Assessment Reports (EPAR), Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC), public summaries, and patient information leaflets.
Prof Blay noted that the challenge is to condense information that is reliable and clear, yet exhaustive, into a document that is comprehensible to all stakeholders. He underlined that at the time of precision medicine and nosological fragmentation of cancers - and all diseases - novel evaluation and communication methods are needed. These include better standardization of information, establishment of public information websites on methods of clinical research, and the contribution of scientific societies to better communication of drug benefits, a prime example being the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS).
For further information, please contact: publicpolicy@esmo.org