Six new Movember grants to improve prostate cancer care for all men

Up to 85% of prostate cancer patients will have at least one symptom missed by their clinician¹. That leaves far too many men left to self-manage parts of their care.

Today, Movember starts to change this. With an investment of AUD $2.83M over three years in six grants across Australia, Canada and the UK.

Funding will go towards better implementing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) into clinical care; which will equip treatment teams in care delivery specific to every individual patient’s needs, preferences and experiences.

PROMs & PREMs: What are they?

In simple terms, PROMs are questionnaires individual patients fill in to help clinicians understand the effects of treatment on their health, and what is important to them. That includes looking at side effects like changes in urinary, bowel and sexual health, pain and fatigue, sleep, and anxiety and depression. It’s a simple tool that helps us better understand prostate cancer treatment as a whole – and how it can be adapted to better suit people from different walks of life.

PREMs are also questionnaires. The main difference is they ask about a patient’s experience with the quality of care during treatment. Analysing PROMs and PREMs together unlocks valuable insights into a patient’s physical and emotional wellbeing as well as how they feel and experience life after treatment.

Ok, got it. So what will each grant fund?

In Australia:

AUD $398,311 awarded to WEHI

New leaps in prostate cancer care are improving survival rates and quality of life. But as treatments advance, they become more complex. It means men from non-English speaking countries, cultures and backgrounds may not experience these benefits fully.

WEHI’s PROCAP Initiative is out to change this. It will use the power of big data to identify disparities in prostate cancer care between culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and non-CALD groups. So better informed healthcare strategies can be created to deliver all patients the best possible care, no matter their background.

AUD $300,000 awarded to the University of Tasmania, Menzies Institute for Medical Research

Patient feedback is becoming a critical part of prostate cancer care. It unlocks insights leading to better treatment outcomes. However, most of this patient feedback has been collected in metropolitan areas, leaving gaps in care for men living in regional and rural Australia, where outcomes are typically worse.

To bridge this gap, the grant will help develop tailored strategies for making the collection of PROMs a part of routine care in Tasmania, a state made up entirely of regional areas. And, once refined, the strategy will be deployed in Geelong, Victoria. The result will be a major step forward towards personalised prostate cancer care for men across Australia, no matter where they live.

In Canada:

CAD $399,897 awarded to McGill University

It sounds simple but makes a huge difference: that is, male prostate cancer patients completing simple questionnaires about their health and symptoms.

The problem is this: these questionnaires aren’t widely used in cancer centres across Canada. And where they are, there’s no standardised follow-up. The knock-on effect is that clinicians and researchers have a limited view on how to reduce the severity of symptoms arising from prostate cancer treatment, and how to uplift quality of life and overall survival.

This grant aims to better meet the individual needs of men living with prostate cancer. By ensuring clinicians respond to PROMs data with actionable steps. And to ensure organisations use PREMs data as a source for improvements in prostate cancer care.

**SECOND CANADIAN GRANT ANNOUNCED SOON**

In the UK:

£440,802 awarded to King’s College London and Guy's & St. Thomas'

To ensure PROMs are positively life changing, we must first understand where healthcare delivery gaps are for prostate cancer patients. That’s what this grant will start to make a difference. And, once the data is collected and analysed it will then inform regional, national and international policies to support the successful implementation of PROMs initiatives; to deliver practical strategies aimed at reducing disparities among underserved populations – including those with historically low engagement.

£200,000 awarded to King’s College London

Current prostate cancer related PROMs questionnaires offered in the UK assume all men are heterosexual. That overlooks the needs and experiences of far too many men, including those with diverse sexual practices, orientations and gender identities. Movember aims to close the gap by funding the creation and implementation of a new questionnaire called the Sexual Minorities and Prostate Cancer Scale (SMACS). It’s a tool that will create broader understanding of how prostate cancer and its treatments impact sexual health; which will be tested across diverse regions of the UK with patients of all ages, races and backgrounds.

1. Sud, S., Gerringer, B. C., Wacaser, B. S., Tan, X., Tatko, S. S., Royce, T. J., Wang, A. Z., & Chen, R. C. (2021). Underascertainment of clinically meaningful symptoms during prostate cancer radiation therapy—Does this vary by patient characteristics? International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 110(4), 1122–1128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.01.034