Last week MPE was in Zagreb for the Autumn EORTC Quality of Life Group meeting, connecting with colleagues working to strengthen the role of quality-of-life data in cancer research.

The EORTC is the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, a cancer research organisation that brings people together to answer important questions about which cancer treatments work best and what their impact is on patients’ lives. The Quality of Life group focuses on measuring and understanding patients’ quality of life in cancer research.

Ahead of the official meeting, MPE’s Board Member Vincent Claus contributed to the pilot in-person SISAQOL training course. SISAQOL was a collaborative project that developed recommendations for designing, analysing, presenting and interpreting patient-reported data in cancer clinical trials. MPE was a work package lead on this European Union-funded project. Over the training course, participants learned and discussed how to apply the SISAQOL project recommendations.

MPE’s Head of Patient Research, Eilidh Duncan, attended the two-day in-person Quality of Life group meeting and represents MPE on a number of active projects within the group. These projects include the development of measures to capture patients’ experiences of T-cell engaging immunotherapies and to understand the impact of cancer and treatments on finances.

The meeting and discussions provide an important opportunity to bring the perspectives of the patient community and patient advocates into the group’s work. It also enables MPE to learn from others and share this learning with our members and community on new developments and best practices in quality of life measurement, analysis and interpretation.