Fragmented referral processes mean uneven access. A patient eligible for radioligand therapy (RLT) in one country may face months of delay or complete barriers in another, depending on whether referring physicians know the option exists, whether referral pathways are mapped, and whether healthcare systems have the infrastructure to deliver it.
To tackle these system-level gaps, the Consensus Project on Optimising RLT Patient Referral Pathways for Prostate Cancer was launched in March 2026. The project does not revisit clinical data. Instead, it focuses on how patients are identified as candidates, how they are referred across specialties, and what information each stakeholder needs at critical decision points.
As the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) announced, six medical societies (the EANM, the European Association of Urology, the European Society for Medical Oncology, the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, the European Society of Radiology), and patient advocates from Europa Uomo, a European advocacy movement for men with prostate cancer, have launched a consensus project to optimize referral pathways for prostate cancer RLT across the continent, with a focus on equitable access rather than clinical efficacy.
The initiative comes at a time when radioligand therapy is expanding rapidly across Europe. New theranostic approaches have transformed the treatment landscape for advanced prostate cancer, while similar strategies are being explored in other tumor types. Yet access often remains uneven, with differences in referral patterns, specialist awareness, and treatment capacity creating barriers long after therapies have demonstrated clinical benefit.
Addressing system-level inequities
The project aims to address structural inequities by focusing on how referral processes actually work in practice, a call that came from the EU Cancer Mission.
Rather than waiting for policy changes, six major societies are analyzing how referrals currently work and where they break down and developing practical recommendations that healthcare systems can adapt locally.
The referral pathways project is part of a broader shift in European healthcare from innovation to implementation. Similar discussions have emerged around clinical audit, quality assurance, and multidisciplinary coordination, reflecting growing recognition that scientific advances alone do not guarantee patient access. Instead, healthcare systems increasingly face the challenge of making new technologies part of routine care in a consistent and equitable way.
Europa Uomo's involvement signals that patient-centered outcomes are central to the mandate, not peripheral. The organization describes the collaboration as "unprecedented multidisciplinary," reflecting a recognition that referral pathways are shared across multiple specialties, they belong to every specialty involved in prostate cancer care.
Results are expected in the coming months. For healthcare systems wrestling with how to operationalize emerging precision therapies equitably, the consensus recommendations may offer a model for coordinated action across institutional silos.
