BIOTEK2021-Bioteknologi for verdiskaping

The pandemic became an obstacle also for the work on a support center for the implementation of best practices regarding diagnosis of prostate cancer in the Nordic countries. In Sweden, the implementation of the new diagnostic pathway for prostate cancer has been fully implemented at Capio S:t Göran hospital in Stockholm. Today this hospital has the best results regarding diagnosis of prostate cancer in Sweden. In collaboration with the management of the consortium in Stockholm and the research units of general practice at the universities of Aalborg, Aarhus and Odense, we developed plans for implementation of more personalized diagnostics based on the Stockholm3 test in Jutland and Funen in Denmark. Nevertheless, due to pandemic, it became impossible to continue the work. In Finland, a planned visit to a hospital in northern Finland and a conference in Helsinki in April 2020 were canceled. A webinar was conducted in April 2021, where more personalized diagnostics for prostate cancer and the use of Stockholm3 was a main topic. In Norway, a proposal was send to the "National system for controlled introduction of new health technology in the Specialist Health Service" to give the Stockholm3 test national approval. The Ordering Forum, which has the mandate to prioritize the assessments of new methods and technologies, decided in May 2021 to conduct a rapid Health Technology Assessment of this proposal at the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Necessary documentation was obtained in the autumn of 2021, and NIPH expects the Ordering Forum to make a national decision before the summer of 2022. We will continue to work for a more personalized and precise diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Prosjektet har brakt arbeidet med persontilpasset diagnostikk av prostatakreft videre og styrket det nordiske samarbeidet. Capio s:t Göran Hospital i Stockholm har nå de beste resultatene i Sverige for diagnostikk av prostatakreft etter innføringen av slik persontilpasset diagnostikk. Driften til prostatasenteret ved Stavanger universitetssjukehus er betydelig bedret. Dette kommer tydelig frem i årsrapporten fra Kreftregisteret som viser at Stavanger diagnostiserer prostatakreft hos en betydelig andel menn med normal PSA (dvs.<3ng/ml). Dette er pasienter som normalt ikke blir diagnostisert ved PSA basert diagnostikk. Prosjektet har skapt interesse for å innføre mer persontilpasset diagnostikk av prostatakreft i de involverte landene, og arbeidet med dette vil fortsette. Vi forventer at dette vil bidra til betydelig framgang for diagnostikk av prostatakreft i Norden, og etter hvert også i andre land.

The overall idea of NorDCaP is to accelerate the spread of best practice personalized diagnostics of prostate cancer to significantly reduce the over- and under diagnostics of prostate cancer. The proposed project will: 1. Transfer best-practice knowledge on personalized primary diagnostics of prostate cancer from Capio S:t Göran Prostate Cancer Center and implement it at 3 other participating Nordic sites 2. Transfer best-practice knowledge on personalized follow up of low-risk cancers (Active Surveillance) from Karolinska Institutet and implement it in clinical practice at 4 participating Nordic sites 3. Set-up the Stockholm3 test so that it can be performed locally 4. Set up centralized Nordic quality assurance system for the Stockholm3 test and for automatic scoring of prostate cancer biopsy images 5. Set up a centralized Nordic Prostate Cancer Diagnostics quality register 6. Develop a common health-economy model that can easily be configurated to fit each country’s pre-conditions 7. Create a Big Data pool of MRI images for future Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning approaches 8. Set up a centralized Nordic organization that supports future implementation of best-practice personalized prostate cancer diagnostics in additional sites 9. Consider ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation issues In a first phase, best-practice will be implemented at NorDCaP’s existing pan-Nordic cluster of healthcare providers in Denmark, Norway and Finland. In a second phase, after the finalization of the Nordforsk project, the findings as well as the infrastructure will be used to improve prostate cancer diagnostics throughout the Nordic countries.