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15/11/2017 - General information

Movember: researching how to improve quality of life after prostate cancer

The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) coordinates Spain's only study funded by the Movember Foundation.

Each November, the Movember Foundation encourages men from all over the world to grow a moustache to raise awareness and funds for men's health research. The Healthcare Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) is the Spanish coordinator for an international study funded by this foundation, involving more than 5,000 patients from twelve different countries.

The study, entitled "Prostate Cancer Outcomes - Compare and Reduce Variation" (PCO-CRV for short), focuses on men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer and has a global allocation of 4.6 million euros that Movember contributes, raised by crowdfunding campaigns around the world that are especially active during the month of November.

In the European Union, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, but fortunately in 90% of cases it is caught at an early stage, before it has started to spread. "Localised prostate cancer is usually asymptomatic and the available results suggest a high survival rate regardless of the treatment applied. Nevertheless, treatment can produce significant side effects, including incontinence, urinary irritation-obstruction, and sexual and bowel bother. For this reason, evaluating the impact of the various treatments on the quality of life of patients has become one of the main assessment focuses” explains Montse Ferrer, the principal investigator of the PCO-CRV study in Spain.

The PCO-CRV study will compare the quality of life of prostate cancer sufferers who have received treatment in the 12 participating countries. The results of this should establish which treatments give better results with regard to quality of life, and help in the design of protocols to improve the physical and mental health of the men treated for localised prostate cancer.

This current project aims to significantly improve the physical and mental health of men treated for prostate cancer by:

- systematically measuring clinical and patient reported outcomes on men diagnosed with prostate cancer, regardless of their management approach, using the ICHOM Localized Prostate Cancer Standard Set (Appendix A) on a prospective basis across multiple clinical sites across Movember Foundation funded countries;

- systematically measuring other key elements of care that have the potential to impact outcomes – e.g. pre and post treatment care practices, multi-disciplinary teams;

- comparing and sharing (de identified) outcomes between Participating Sites and Local Data Centres recruiting patients;

- analysing the variations in outcomes– to understand the key drivers that deliver the best possible outcomes for men with prostate cancer; and

- mobilising the exchange of knowledge within the PCO-CRV Members and beyond

The project, which currently has funding for 3 years, includes 33 centres in Spain and a total of 12 countries with various participant organisations.

About Movember

The Movember Foundation and its eponymous Movember campaign, is the world's leading organisation in the fight to change the face of men's health.

The main task of the Movember Foundation is to fund research on men's diseases, through its Global Action Plan, to ensure that men live happier, healthier and longer lives. All the efforts made during the campaign by MoBros and MoSistas go towards this, as they collect the most funds they can to change the face of men's health.

Since 2003, the Movember community (4.7 million MoBros and MoSistas) has raised 484 million euros and funded close to 1,000 prostate and testicular cancer research programmes in 21 countries. The money raised is managed through its Global Action Plan, where a group of experts comprising 250 of the top specialists in testicular and prostate cancer, mental health, and physical inactivity, evaluate and distribute the funds to the best proposals from research groups from all over the world.

Thanks to this, they are saving and improving the quality of life of men affected by prostate and testicular cancer.

You can collaborate with the IMIM team, the IMIMO at: http://moteam.co/imimo

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