The actual and ongoing agenda of the EAN – NeuroOncology Panel was presented during the EAN 2017 in Amsterdam at the Panel meeting. The following activities were discussed in detail:
Guidelines, provided by the EAN-Scientific Panels, are one of the major goals of the EAN. Before starting with the guideline-production, the Neuro-Oncology Panel Chairs will propose some actual topics for future guidelines such as; diagnosis of paraneoplastic neurological syndromes; diagnosis and treatment of epileptic seizures in brain tumor patients; guidelines for clinical and radiological diagnosis and follow-up in glioma patients, and the Panel will ask for support by the EAN with respect to guideline production. A definite selection of one topic will be performed by the end of 2017 in collaboration with all panel members. It was agreed to initially contact the Panel of Neuroimmunology for a possible update of the Guidelines on “Screening for tumors in paraneoplastic syndromes: report of an EFNS task force” published in Eur J Neurol. 2011.
The problem of bringing Neuro-Oncology into Neurology education and training in a structured way is one of the major tasks of the EAN Neurooncology Panel. The first step of the Panel will be to collect information around European countries on how training in Neuro-Oncology is organized within Neurology. Riccardo Soffietti illustrated the project of a “Survey on the involvement of neurologists in brain tumor management”. A first survey was done several years ago (leaded by J. Heimans and W. Grisold), and resulted in a paper “The position of the neurologist in Neuro-oncology” in Eur J. Neurol. 2002.
A Questionnaire concerning regulations and clinical practice of “driving license and brain tumor patients” was elaborated by Anette Storstein from Norway. Except the regulations concerning epilepsy, there are no clear directives for brain tumor patients. The Questionnaire was approved by the Panel and should give an insight in this complex topic in a multinational approach.
In order to gain data on pattern of care analysis in brain tumor patients in Europe, a Questionnaire “Survey on Registries of Brain Tumors in Europe” was elaborated by Stefan Oberndorfer from Austria concerning national Brain Tumor Registries. The Questionnaire is already approved by the EAN and sent out to the national delegates of the EAN. The final aim should be to describe the natural history and patterns of care in different European countries. Thus, we will contact all potential sources of data that are available (registries at a national/regional level, databases of multidisciplinary institutions, etc.).
Depending on the overarching topics in future EAN-Congresses, one major aspect could be “joint activities” with other Scientific Panels of the EAN. The Panel Chairs will informally approach the Panel for Neuroimaging, Epilepsy, and Neuropalliative Care, for possible joint proposals for teaching courses, etc. A cooperation will be planned with the European Association for NeuroOncology (EANO) for Oslo 2019. This idea is also supported by the actual president of the EANO, Wolfgang Wick.
The action plan of the EAN Neuro-Oncology Panel for 2017/2018 will be focused on the collection of information concerning training in Neuro-Oncology in the residency of Neurology according to different European countries. A joint and associated meeting EANO-EAN for Oslo 2019 is planned, and the Questionnaires on Brain Tumor Registries as well as concerning driving license in brain tumor patients will be finalized and presented at the EAN 2018.
Chair: Riccardo Soffietti, Division Neuro-Oncology University of Torino, Italy
Co-Chair: Stefan Oberndorfer, Department Neurology, University Hospital St. Pölten KLPU, Austria
