This year, PALEMA decided to attend Almedals Week to assess whether it is a platform the association should continue to focus on in the future.
Fredrik Smedberg and Ingela Hallberg were tasked with spending a day exploring, networking, and gathering impressions.
We arrived in Visby on the morning ferry on June 24. With brochures and roll-up banners in our luggage, we headed to the tent where ASIH Stockholm had arranged a spot for us. We were given a great spot for our two roll-up banners—one for PALEMA and one for Blåljuscancer.
The tent was in a busy spot with plenty of passersby. The sun was shining, a lovely summer breeze swept through the tent, and the atmosphere gave us hope for the future. There were a large number of tents lining the entire street, which made competition for visitors’ attention fierce.
However, some people stopped by and showed interest, particularly in Blåljuscancer and the importance of raising awareness about these types of cancer.
The main purpose of our visit was to listen, network, and make new connections.
Ingela Hallberg and Fredrik Smedberg
National Trial Networks
Ingela attended a seminar organized by Roche and SwedenBIO on national clinical trial networks during the morning, in which Swetrial participated. A clear conclusion from the seminar was that all regional hospitals need to collaborate within established clinical trial networks—something that university hospitals have already begun to do. In order to conduct more clinical trials, the right expertise, a functioning infrastructure, and sufficient resources are also required.
Ingela will contact representatives from Swetrial to continue the dialogue.
Swetrial Seminar featuring a discussion on how to increase access to clinical trials in Sweden. Helena Luning opened the seminar.
Faster Adoption of New Treatments
Fredrik participated in a seminar on how new treatments can reach patients more quickly. This was a recurring theme during Almedals Week. Several seminars emphasized that it takes far too long for new drugs to be used in the Swedish healthcare system, even though they have already been approved.
The time from approval to implementation of new cancer drugs has more than doubled in five years—from just under 300 days to about 600 days. Sweden thus lags behind many other European countries.
Accessibility and Wait Times for New Treatments to Reach Patients
From Research to Patient Benefit
The Swedish Cancer Society organized a seminar on how cancer research can be translated more quickly into benefits for patients. One example was developments in clinical radiation therapy, where new research has already begun to be applied in healthcare.
A clear message was that research should not only be evaluated based on scientific publications, but also on how the results are implemented in healthcare and benefit patients. The Swedish Cancer Society has therefore launched an implementation program through which researchers can apply for funding.
Seminar featuring representatives from the Cancer Foundation, with opening remarks by Secretary General Ulrika Årehed Kågström
The National Cancer Strategy
Another interesting seminar focused on the National Cancer Strategy and what is needed to achieve its goals. Participants included politicians, Kjell Ivarsson, and representatives from the Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC), including Patrik Rossi.
Several important issues were highlighted:
- Primary care is key to early detection.
- A regular primary care physician is important for patients.
- The number of people over 80 is expected to double by 2030.
- The supply of skilled healthcare professionals must be strengthened.
- Equal access to care is crucial, especially when it comes to diagnostics and screening.
- Innovations need to reach patients more quickly.
- Collaboration between universities and the healthcare system needs to be developed.
- The earlier a cancer diagnosis is made, the better the prospects for treatment.
These are issues on which many agree. The major challenge remains how to put these ambitions into practice. Awareness exists—now action is needed.
Seminar on the implementation of the new cancer strategy featuring, among others, Kjell Ivarsson, National Cancer Coordinator, Patrik Rossi, Chair of the CCC Sweden Steering Committee, and others
Contacts and Networks
During the day, we met many valuable contacts. Among other things, Ingela had scheduled a meeting with representatives from the Cancer Foundation’s research unit.
We also met and spoke with representatives from EUPATI Sweden, the Swedish Childhood Cancer Foundation, Ung Cancer, the Healthcare Network, the Swedish Medical Association, and Swetrial. We will follow up with several of these contacts after the summer.
The day in Almedalen provided us with valuable insights and several new contacts. At the same time, it reaffirms the importance of continuing to develop our collaboration with the healthcare sector, other organizations in the field of cancer, policymakers, and the pharmaceutical industry, with the goal of working together to improve care, research, and the quality of life for patients with our diagnoses.
Conversation with representatives from the research community, the Swedish Cancer Society, Karin Eriksson, Head of Research and Health, and Annina Gran, Head of Research Funding.
