Movember to launch prostate cancer 'super network'

Movember is launching a bumper network of prostate cancer patient registries, set to transform treatment and care of the disease by harnessing the ‘real world’ experiences of more than 130,000 men.

The global ‘super network’ — believed to be the world’s largest and first of its kind — will hold detailed clinical information on the diagnosis, treatment and survivorship of prostate cancer patients from more than 15 countries.

With the project set to fast-track efforts to improve the treatment and care of men with prostate cancer, Movember is aiming to grow the network to include data on 250,000 men within the next five years.

The data will enable prostate clinicians throughout the world to measure and benchmark the health of their patients after treatment, providing them with vital information to improve the quality of prostate cancer treatment and care. Cancer specialists will be able to monitor how patients are responding to new generations of therapies in the real world, outside of clinical trials, allowing the delivery of more personalised care.

The initiative will also improve patient access to digital survivorship resources such as Movember’s True North initiative, which provides men and their families with treatment information and tailored lifestyle advice. This enables patients to manage the physical and mental side effects of living with cancer, as well as the long-term side effects of treatment.

In order to deliver this ambitious project, Movember has announced a landmark partnership with Montreal-based electronic data capture and registry software company Dacima Software Inc. (Dacima) to design and develop a new registry database. Dacima has extensive experience in designing registry databases for different acute and chronic diseases, vaccine monitoring, surveillance of infectious diseases, medical procedures and medical devices.

The upgraded system will allow data from existing patient registries to be integrated, creating a comprehensive and detailed prostate cancer surveillance system.

The project will start with the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry — Australia and New Zealand (PCOR-ANZ) database. PCOR-ANZ, now in its fifth year of operation, currently holds the details of 67,570 men and is aiming to identify population-wide trends in diagnosis and treatment. Movember-supported patient registries from other countries will soon join the network.

Movember Executive Director of Programs Paul Villanti said, “Effective clinical quality registries significantly improve the quality of life of men with prostate cancer, and offer the potential to extend survival. But being able to establish a ‘super network’ of registries that supports biomedical research, clinical trials, treatment quality improvement and personalised care and support for men living with prostate cancer is a major step forward and has the power to revolutionise prostate cancer treatment and care.

“Within the next five years, we are aiming to include the experiences of over 250,000 men.

“We can only truly accelerate improved health outcomes for men through global integration of biomedical research, clinical trials and improved treatment and care. We need global technology partners that enable us to achieve this vision,” Villanti said.

“We’re delighted to be working with Dacima Software as a technology partner that will lay the foundations for us to achieve our aim of enabling men to enjoy a better quality of life following a prostate cancer diagnosis.”

Dacima Co-founder, President and CEO Dr John Podoba said, “We are proud to be working with Movember to design and develop a new prostate cancer registry database. We are looking forward to developing a long-term partnership with Movember to help them meet their current and future global data management needs.”

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