BCa18: Delivering key updates in bladder cancer management

With the fast-changing treatment landscape in bladder cancer, diagnosing and managing urothelial tumours require cancer specialists to be highly proficient in decision-making and knowledgeable on various treatment approaches including novel therapeutic strategies.

To meet the current need for an educational and interactive update meeting, the European Association of Urology (EAU) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) have pooled their expertise to organize the two-day EAU Update on Bladder Cancer (BCa18) to be held on 8 and 9 June in Munich, Germany.

“Among the main challenges in managing bladder cancer are in early, correct diagnosis employing, for instance, complete TURBT. There is also the challenge of timely decision-making in cases of adjuvant treatment, or the option of radical surgery in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer,” said Dr. Joan Palou, chairman of the European School of Urology (ESU), as he explained the necessity for specialists to be in the forefront of new treatment approaches. “And in muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), the management can vary a lot and is still evolving particularly with the entry of new drugs, which is changing the management and treatment landscape of bladder cancer.

With recent developments in genomic studies such as the comprehensive molecular characterization of MIBC which is part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project, the impact on a physician’s decision-making becomes more profound, according to Palou, noting that insights from genetic studies have further informed the decisions of cancer specialists with regards patient selection, disease progression and drug sequencing.

“Diagnosis, treatment and follow-up strategies are the key areas. New markers with better negative predictive value, sequential adjuvant treatment, chemo-hyperthermia are among the factors that are going to change or are changing the established guidelines,” added Palou.

Expert-led meeting

Designed as a highly interactive and expert-led meeting, BCa18 will cover seven major areas in bladder cancer management with participants examining molecular classification and genomics approaches, new therapies in Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC), current issues in MIBC, the role of immunotherapy, palliative management of MIBC, optimizing NMIBC treatment, and follow-up management strategies.

With an obligatory pre- and post-testing questionnaire, participants will be prepared for the meeting and also be able to assess their knowledge gain.

“The pre- and post-testing will benefit both participants and the faculty. Participants will become more aware of their level of knowledge on bladder cancer topics, and faculty members will have a clearer assessment of the knowledge of participants before and after the course. By having an insight on the participants’ base knowledge, faculty members can adapt teaching requirements or emphasize certain topics,” said Palou.

During the meeting, compact overview lectures will precede the break-out sessions wherein participants will go into various topic-focused modules to enable expert lecturers to lead one-on-one discussions.

“By presenting challenging situations in management or actual clinical scenarios, the faculty would prompt participants to critically look into new approaches or other options in treating bladder cancer. Experts can also directly share insights they gained from their clinical practice. The learning process would be a synthesis of the speaker’s expertise and the participants own experience,” Palou said.

The meeting is CME-accredited and is part of the new onco-urology series offered by the EAU in collaboration with specialist organizations such as the ESMO. The synergy between the ESMO and the EAU enables both organizations to offer the most recent developments and novel approaches in managing bladder cancer.

For details on BCa18, visit the meeting website.