Lung cancer biomarker testing: perspective from Europe
Erik Thunnissen, Birgit Weynand, Dalma Udovičić-Gagula, Luka Brčić, Małgorzata Szołkowska, Paul Hofman, Silvana Smojver‐Ježek, Sisko Anttila, Fiorella Calabrese, Izidor Kern, Birgit Guldhammer Skov, Sven Perner, Vibeke Grotnes Dale, Živka Eri, Alex Haragan, Diana Leonte, Lina Carvallo, S. Savic Prince, Siobhan Nicholson, Irene Sansano, Aleš Ryška
Abstract
A questionnaire on biomarker testing previously used in central European countries was extended and distributed in Western and Central European countries to the pathologists participating at the Pulmonary Pathology Society meeting 26-28 June 2019 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Each country was represented by one responder. For recent biomarkers the availability and reimbursement of diagnoses of molecular alterations in non-small cell lung carcinoma varies widely between different, also western European, countries. Reimbursement of such assessments varies widely between unavailability and payments by the health care system or even pharmaceutical companies. The support for testing from alternative sources, such as the pharmaceutical industry, is no doubt partly compensating for the lack of public health system support, but it is not a viable or long-term solution. Ideally, a structured access to testing and reimbursement should be the aim in order to provide patients with appropriate therapeutic options. As biomarker enabled therapies deliver a 50% better probability of outcome success, improved and unbiased reimbursement remains a major challenge for the future.