New Photocure White Paper addressing Inequality in Bladder Cancer Care and the importance of Real World Evidence
This new White Paper discusses how real world evidence and patient registries can play a part in supporting healthcare equality. It looks at how Photocure supports researchers with data, and at uncovering disparities in bladder cancer care and outcomes through findings reported from several recent real world bladder cancer databases and studies. Some ethnic groups were found to have poorer bladder cancer outcomes than others. Income also appears to be linked to outcomes. Further research will be needed in order to investigate these disparities as first steps towards greater understanding and more equal bladder cancer care and outcomes for all bladder cancer patients, regardless of background, race or gender.
Read the full white paper online: Addressing inequality in bladder cancer care – Why are there still disparities in bladder cancer care and outcomes?
And how can real world evidence play a part in supporting healthcare equality?
While randomized controlled trials are the gold standard in the assessment of the safety and efficacy of new therapies, disparities may exist between the outcomes we see from clinical trials and what we actually see in clinical practice. Photocure remains committed to bridging the knowledge gap that exists in bladder cancer care. The company has supported and worked closely with several patient registries to benefit from real world data, including setting up its own U.S. “Blue Light Cystoscopy with Cysview” Registry, established by Photocure in 2014 and projected to enroll 4,400 patients.
About Bladder Cancer
Bladder cancer ranks as the 8th most common cancer worldwide – the 5th most common in men – with 1 720 000 prevalent cases (5-year prevalence rate)1a, 573 000 new cases and more than 200 000 deaths in 2020.1b
Approx. 75% of all bladder cancer cases occur in men.1 It has a high recurrence rate with up to 61% in year one and up to 78% over five years.2 Bladder cancer has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers.3
Bladder cancer is a costly, potentially progressive disease for which patients have to undergo multiple cystoscopies due to the high risk of recurrence. There is an urgent need to improve both the diagnosis and the management of bladder cancer for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems alike.
Bladder cancer is classified into two types, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), depending on the depth of invasion in the bladder wall. NMIBC remains in the inner layer of cells lining the bladder. These cancers are the most common (75%) of all BC cases and include the subtypes Ta, carcinoma in situ (CIS) and T1 lesions. In MIBC the cancer has grown into deeper layers of the bladder wall. These cancers, including subtypes T2, T3 and T4, are more likely to spread and are harder to treat.4
1 Globocan. a) 5-year prevalence / b) incidence/mortality by population. Available at: https://gco.iarc.fr/today, accessed [January 2022].
2 Babjuk M, et al. Eur Urol. 2019; 76(5): 639-657
3 Sievert KD et al. World J Urol 2009;27:295–300
4 Bladder Cancer. American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/bladder-cancer.html