TY - JOUR
T1 - Awareness and understanding of cancer immunotherapy in Europe
AU - Mellstedt, Håkan
AU - Gaudernack, Gustav
AU - Gerritsen, Winald R.
AU - Huber, Christoph
AU - Melero, Ignacio
AU - Parmiani, Giorgio
AU - Scholl, Uzy
AU - Thatcher, Nicholas
AU - Wagstaff, John
AU - Zielinski, Christoph
N1 - Funding Information:
H.M. has received honoraria and research funding from Merck KGaA. C.H. is an employee and has stock in BioNTech and GANYMED Pharmaceuticals, has provided consultancy to apceth, Bayer, Baxter, BioNTech, GANYMED, immatics, Merck KGaA, SuppreMol, and TRON, and received honoraria from the Kurume Cluster (Japan), CCR (United Kingdom), Swiss National Science Foundation and the Karolinska University, Stockholm, Sweden. I.M. has provided consultancy to and received honoraria and research funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb. G.P. has provided consultancy to CureVac and received honoraria from Recombio. N.T. and S.S. have provided consultancy and received honoraria from Merck KGaA. G.G. is employed by Ultimovacs AS and has stocks in Ultimovacs AS and Targovax AS and he has provided consultancy to and received honoraria from KaelGemvax and Lytix AS. W.G., J.W., and C.Z. have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Funding Information:
The POINT group receives funding from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Synovate Healthcare, London, UK partnered in the research survey and medical writing assistance was provided by Ian Faulkner, International Medical Press, London, United Kingdom, funded by Merck KGaA. Merck KGaA has performed a scientific review of the publication, but the views and opinions described in the publication do not necessarily reflect those of Merck KGaA.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Landes Bioscience.
PY - 2014/7/1
Y1 - 2014/7/1
N2 - The use of immunotherapy in the management of cancer is growing, and a range of new immunotherapeutic strategies is becoming available. It is important that people involved in the care of cancer understand how cancer immunotherapies differ from conventional chemotherapy and apply this knowledge to their clinical practice. Therefore, from August-September 2011 we undertook a survey of awareness, attitudes, and perceptions of cancer immunotherapy among 426 healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Europe with the aim of identifying and prioritizing educational needs. Nearly all (98%) HCPs were aware of cancer immunotherapy. While 68% of HCPs indicated a high level of interest in cancer immunotherapies, only 24% of the HCPs had direct experience with them. Overall perceptions of cancer immunotherapy among HCPs were largely positive (60%) and rarely negative (3%). The key advantages of cancer immunotherapy were perceived to be good safety and tolerability (75%), a targeted mechanism of action (61%) and good efficacy (48%). The leading barriers to use of immunotherapies were costs of treatment (58%), past clinical trial failures (45%), and access/formulary restrictions (44%). The results indicate that, among the respondents, awareness of cancer immunotherapy was high but that knowledge levels varied and direct experience with their use was limited. There appears to be a need for educational activities on cancer immunotherapy, as well as generation and communication of clinical data on long-term efficacy and safety.
AB - The use of immunotherapy in the management of cancer is growing, and a range of new immunotherapeutic strategies is becoming available. It is important that people involved in the care of cancer understand how cancer immunotherapies differ from conventional chemotherapy and apply this knowledge to their clinical practice. Therefore, from August-September 2011 we undertook a survey of awareness, attitudes, and perceptions of cancer immunotherapy among 426 healthcare professionals (HCPs) in Europe with the aim of identifying and prioritizing educational needs. Nearly all (98%) HCPs were aware of cancer immunotherapy. While 68% of HCPs indicated a high level of interest in cancer immunotherapies, only 24% of the HCPs had direct experience with them. Overall perceptions of cancer immunotherapy among HCPs were largely positive (60%) and rarely negative (3%). The key advantages of cancer immunotherapy were perceived to be good safety and tolerability (75%), a targeted mechanism of action (61%) and good efficacy (48%). The leading barriers to use of immunotherapies were costs of treatment (58%), past clinical trial failures (45%), and access/formulary restrictions (44%). The results indicate that, among the respondents, awareness of cancer immunotherapy was high but that knowledge levels varied and direct experience with their use was limited. There appears to be a need for educational activities on cancer immunotherapy, as well as generation and communication of clinical data on long-term efficacy and safety.
KW - Awareness
KW - Cancer immunotherapy
KW - Education
KW - Survey
KW - Vaccine
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U2 - 10.4161/hv.28943
DO - 10.4161/hv.28943
M3 - Article
C2 - 25424789
AN - SCOPUS:84908374118
SN - 2164-5515
VL - 10
SP - 1828
EP - 1835
JO - Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics
JF - Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics
IS - 7
ER -