CONGRESS SPECIAL

Therapeutic sequencing in prostate Cancer

Over the last 10 years we have witnessed a revolution in the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The introduction of several new therapeutic modalities had a significant impact on the overall survival (OS) of these patients. Whereas the median OS for patients with mCRPC was only 24.2 months back in 1997, this has increased to 39.4 months in a patient cohort from 2007 to 2013. This represents an increase in the median OS with 1.5 years.¹ Currently, patients with mCRPC have 6 different drugs at their disposal. The question now is: “how to best sequence these different options?”

What about oligometastatic therapy in prostate cancer?

In a pro and con debate, Prof. Piet Ost and Prof. Betrand Tombal discussed the potential of metastasisdirected therapy for patients with oligorecurrent prostate cancer.

Interview with Professor Sylvie Rottey

2018 Marked the 5^th edition of the Belgian Multidisciplinary Meeting on Urological Cancers (BMUC). This meeting is a collaboration between the BSMO, BVU/SBU, and BVRO/ABRO and took place on 9 and 10 March 2018. We invited Prof. Sylvie Rottey (BMUC President) to share her thoughts on the achievements of BMUC and of the future plans with the organization.

Precision medicine in breast cancer: current practice and perspectives

Summary

Just to set the scene: precision, or personalized medicine, is an approach to patient care that allows physicians to select treatments that are most likely to help their patients based on a genomic characterization of the disease, the environment and the way of life of the patient.

Hereditary breast cancer beyond BRCA: how to deal with it in routine clinical practice?

Quality management of systemic breast cancer treatment

Summary

Quality management is a key requirement to obtain the best care for patients. In previous years, a lot of effort was made in defining quality indicators for breast cancer in Belgium. Based on EUSOMA guidelines and in collaboration with several partners, a set of quality indicators of systemic breast cancer therapy were defined. These include structure indicators (e.g. education, day clinic facilities, etc.), outcome indicators (e.g. overall survival, disease-free survival, etc.) and process indicators. The first results of some of these process indicators were presented during the 2018 annual BSMO meeting.

Practice changing data from SABCS

Summary

In his presentation, professor François Duhoux (Cliniques Universitaires St. Luc, Brussels) gave an overview of the key messages from the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Four main topics were addressed: dose dense adjuvant chemotherapy, chemotherapy for patients with lobular disease, optimizing hormonal therapy for younger breast cancer patients and the optimal duration of endocrine therapy.