Fortbildungen / Formations continues 2012 - IUMSP

50 years of EORTC
Brussels 15-16 March 2012
Franco Cavalli, Oncology Institute of Southern
Switzerland, Bellinzona
This conference, which was more of a celebration than a scienti�c
meeting, was held in the beautiful Square–Brussels
Meeting Centre, which is very conveniently located in the
centre of Brussels, right between Central Station and Palais
Royal.
For two days, 1,100 people gathered to celebrate half a
century of EORTC’s existence. The organisation was set
up in 1962, at a time when the European dream was still
a beautiful vision, which undoubtedly was shared by
EORTC’s �rst presidents. Let’s name the �rst seven chairmen:
Dr Georges Mathé, Prof. Silvio Garattini, Prof. Dirk
Willem Van Bekkum, Prof. Henri Tagnon, Lazlo George
Latja, Prof. Carl Gottfried Schmidt and Prof. Umberto
Veronesi. This list reads like a who’s who of oncology in
Europe.
Admittedly, EORTC – or the EORTC headquarters in
particular – may have become so large that productivity
may have suffered. Nevertheless, EORTC remains a pillar
of clinical cancer research in Europe. It is therefore with
a certain pride that we impart the news that Prof. Roger
Stupp will be the �rst Swiss national to become EORTC
Chairman from 2013 until 2016. His appointment is not
only a recognition for what he has done for EORTC, but
also for the Swiss participation: Over the last 11 years,
about 75,000 patients were enrolled into EORTC trials,
1,500 of them in Switzerland. Our country is the largest
non-EU contributor participating in EORTC activities
with regard to the number of patients recruited into trials.
In fact, Roger Stupp will be the �rst non-EU researcher to
head EORTC.
The presenters at the conference mainly focused on the
organisation’s past achievements, but also outlined the
future prospects. Dr Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, the Director
of the Health Directorate at the Research DG of the
European Commission, worked for many years in cancer
research as a PhD and is very familiar with preclinical
and clinical research. Summarising the current situation
within the EU – although EORTC is not directly funded
by the EU Commission – she explained that the EU
Commission invests about €250 million every year into
KONGRESSBERICHTE
cancer research in Europe, whereby a quarter, the largest
share, is devoted to ERC grants, while funding of clinical
research is limited to about €35 million per year. (IOSI
was the only Swiss oncology institute to recently having
received such an ERC grant.) Overall, the EU Commission’s
spending on cancer research amounts to about 10%
of the total of all 27 EU countries’ annual investments.
The EU decided to invest more in cancer research over the
next decade, also in cooperation with the U.S., Japan and
Australia. Most of the programme will be devoted to genomics
and proteomics as well as so-called «personalised»
medicine. Only the future can tell whether the current
hype about the latter will prove to have been justi�ed.
Probably more important is the fact that the EU is about
to revise the clinical trial directive, which should be accepted
this year in its revised form: it has been promised
that this will mean a simpli�cation of the incredibly bureaucratic
procedures, which after the acceptance of the
currently valid clinical trials directive (2001) have led to
a dramatic decrease of the number of clinical trials conducted
in Europe (see box).
Clinical trials in Europe
2007: 5100
2011: 3700
In the meantime, the number of pages in the Consent
Form has increased from 3 in 2000 to 12 pages in 2012.
This is the consequence of the clinical trials directive,
which hopefully should be amended and accepted in
its revised form in 2012.
Another conference highlight was the presentation on
the late Prof. Henri Tagnon, which was held by Prof.
Alexander Eggermont, the newly elected director of
IGR-Villejuif. He discussed «The changing paradigm for
melanoma care and research», highlighting the very impressive
goals which have been achieved over the last 20
years by the EORTC melanoma group. Then he concentrated
mainly on the new treatment possibilities for this
very particular type of cancer. He concluded his brilliant
talk by highlighting the �nancial issues regarding current
drug development: Should a triple combination become
the standard treatment for melanoma (B-RAF-inhibitor/
MEK-inhibitor/Ipilimumab) in the near future, it may
cost as much as $300,000 per year! It is hard to envisage
that even the richest countries of the world will be prepared
to pay for a therapy at such an extortionate price.
Schweizer Krebsbulletin � Nr. 2/2012 173