On 9 February, SPARC-Europe unveiled its Investment Pathway Guide for the delivery of radioligand cancer therapies and the patient testimonies’ video, on the occasion of its policy event “Improving European policies to unlock radioligand therapies’ potential: what is the state of play?”.
Investment Pathway Guide
Radioligand therapy has gained attraction for being an exceptional and innovative treatment in the field of nuclear medicine, delivering radiation directly to specific cells and significantly improving patients’ quality of life.
Because of its nature, radioligand therapy needs specific requirements within hospital infrastructures to be adequality delivered.
Due to the management of healthcare systems at national and/or regional levels, there are significant discrepancies in terms of centres equipped to deliver such treatment. In the EU, only a few countries have a high volume of experience in radioligand therapies, such as the Netherlands, Austria and Germany.
As one of the main objectives of SPARC-Europe’s Alliance is to reduce inequalities in hospital infrastructures across the EU, the Steering Committee developed the Investment Pathway document to lay down the needs for adequate delivery of radioligand cancer therapies and to match those needs with available funding mechanisms at the EU level. Through this guide, SPARC-Europe intends to bring policymakers’ attention to:
- identified areas of opportunity to improve the delivery of RLTs;
- EU funding instruments that can be potentially deployed in these areas.
With specific healthcare settings being fundamental for the delivery of radioligand therapies, the document focuses specifically on EUhealthcare infrastructure and its readiness to effectively accommodate such innovative treatment.
The Alliance considers it extremely crucial to look into the potential offered by EU funding instruments in tackling inequalities in hospital infrastructures.
Several EU instruments are earmarked in the guide, encouraging national and regional stakeholders to benefit from these funds and work towards addressing RLT-related challenges.
Click here to download Investment Pathway Guide for the delivery of radioligand cancer therapies.
Patient testimonies video
Alongside challenges related to hospital infrastructural gaps, patient education, awareness and understanding of the treatment remain one of the main barriers towards RLT acceptance.
To raise awareness within the patient community as well as awareness of policymakers about the benefits of radioligand therapies and inform them about the challenges RLT patients face, SPARC-Europe developed a Patient Testimonies Video.
The video was created in collaboration with patient organisations International Neuroendocrine Cancer Alliance and features the testimonials of three neuroendocrine neoplasms patients: Tom from Ireland, Blanca from Spain and Luc from Belgium).
Click here to learn more.