MEP Philippe De Backer hosted the first meeting of the Multistakeholder Pancreatic Cancer Platform, reuniting some of the main European experts in the field of pancreatic cancer.
The objective of the meeting, moderated by Sebastian Rodhes, was to agree on a strategy for the Platform to achieve its objective through three main pillars of action: awareness, diagnosis and registries.
ECPC President Francesco De Lorenzo stressed the importance to raise awareness not only to patients, but also to general practitioners. Researchers and oncologists participating to the platform welcomed Prof De Lorenzo’s comments, which were reiterated also by ECPC Vice President Kathi Apostolidis. The panelists shared their experiences of lack of awareness, stressing that information tools are necessary also for policy makers.
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“A well informed patient Francesco De Lorenzo |
Patients need to know their rights and have the best information possibe. For this reason, Prof De Lorenzo encouraged the participants to collaborate with ECPC to create a booklet on pancreatic cancer, validated by the scientific community, but targeted to patients. Prof De Lorenzo was joined by Ms Apostolidis in requesting the platform to focus on populations at risk, in particular smokers and obese.