Early treatment and prevention go hand-in-hand: World Cancer Day

By European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan 

4 February is World Cancer Day 2015, and it seems that, according to the World Health Organization, new cases of cancer globally are expected to increase by 70% over the next 20 years, from around 14 million to 25m.

Even rich countries face an uphill battle to cope with spiralling costs for treatment and care while lower-income states will lack the resources to deal with such high numbers.

Surely the case for prevention as treatment – as well as treatment as prevention – is now here, if it wasn’t already.

In the latter case, a recent study showed that halting the spread of the HIV epidemic through early treatment has been highly successful. UNAIDS described the results as a “serious game changer” as it seems that early antiretroviral treatment can prevent sexual transmission of HIV between heterosexual couples where one partner is HIV-infected and the other isn’t.

The extensive study showed that if those infected are treated immediately — ie before their immune systems have deteriorated — the risk of transmitting the virus plummets by an astonishing 96 percent.

HIV is not cancer, of course, but the study is an example of the benefits that can be attached to early treatment. Early diagnostics also, obviously, also have a major part to play.

The European Alliance for Personalised Medicine strongly advocates this and brings together patients, medical professionals, health-care planners, scientists, industry and researchers. The Alliance believes that there has never been a better time to grasp the opportunities in cancer prevention using the latest discoveries in “omics” - including genomic science.

Due to these advances, our knowledge of common variants related to cancer risks has leaped from five to more than 450 and, genetically, we know a great deal more about what makes individuals susceptible.

Personalised medicine is all about giving the right treatment to the right patient at the right time, but there’s a reason why the phrase “prevention is better than cure” is so well known.

Personalised medicine utilizes research, data and up-to-the-minute technology to provide better diagnostics and follow-up for citizens than is currently the case. It uses genetic information to discern whether a particular drug or regime will work for a particular patient and assists clinicians in deciding which treatment will be the most effective. It can also have a huge impact in a preventative sense.

Earlier diagnostics and earlier treatment has many benefits, among them fiscal, because while cost is a major issue – and there are key questions about the cost-effectiveness of new and even existing treatments - better diagnostics will ease the burden on health-care systems in two ways.

Firstly, it will allow a more preventative approach in that gene technology will flag up the likelihood of a particular individual developing a particular disease and provide a good idea of how it will develop, thereby encouraging early intervention.

Secondly, efficacious treatment means patients are much less likely to require expensive hospital beds and are more able to continue working and contributing to Europe’s economy.

On the latter subject, when it comes to access to effective treatment, the situation is not good in respect of rare cancers and those suffering from them in smaller member states.

For example, 28-year-old Latvian schoolteacher Agnese was diagnosed with Myxofibrosarcoma, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and today said: “Rare-cancer patients should get similar treatment options as those with more common cancers. This is, sadly, not the case.

“Even once diagnosed, and despite advances in therapy and an increase in the number of innovative drugs, the situation is unequal.”

Barriers to better treatment certainly exist, and much work needs to be done – Thomas Edison once said opportunities are “dressed in overalls and look like work" – but the time has come for Europe to understand the value of early diagnostics and treatment, not only in cancer (and HIV) but in all forms of disease.

World Cancer Day is the perfect time for real action to help prevent this terrible, global tragedy from becoming worse.

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