ECCO and its members have now set out a manifesto for improved access to innovation in a consensus paper published in the European Journal of Cancer.

Policy Priorities

• Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care
• Integration of Care
• Access to Innovation
• Oncology Workforce

The paper emphasizes that:

• Important innovations need not be complex or expensive.
• Structured pathways are required to regularise and systemise the introduction of innovation within health systems;
• There must be greater readiness to remove or discontinue practices or interventions that are inefficient;
• Patient benefit should be placed at the heart of any valuation of an innovation, giving adequate weight to quality of life and progression-free survival
• Real world data should be used to assess the benefit of innovations beyond the pharmaceutical domain
• The information provided to patients and healthcare professionals about ongoing and completed research should be improved
• The potential savings that certain innovations can create in the longer term for healthcare budgets and society should be better understood
• The sharing of registry data across countries should be improved via common protocols, structures and transparency
• A whole-system approach to innovation should be promoted via multi-disciplinary leadership