The EORTC Genito-Urinary Cancers Group: 35 years of achievements and future strategy

Founded 35 years ago, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Genito-Urinary Cancers Group (GU Group) has carried out a total of 99 phase I, II and III clinical trials in the fields of bladder, prostate, kidney, testicular and penile cancer. Meta-analyses have answered clinically important questions that the individual studies could not answer by themselves.From its very beginning, the GU Group has adopted a multidisciplinary approach, with collaboration among urologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists and biostatisticians. It has also had a very successful collaboration with the EORTC Radiation Oncology Group and with national organizations such as the UK Medical Research Council.The results of their work, which remain standards in the field today, have directly led to major worldwide improvements in day to day clinical practice and have been incorporated into treatment guidelines such as those of the European Association of Urology.The group's intention is to build on this important legacy and to continue to develop and recruit to the multicenter, international randomized studies that have been their hallmark. Their primary aim will be to focus on clinical trials that investigate strategic therapeutic questions and which have the potential to change medical practice and improve our understanding of urologic malignancies. This includes studies with strong translational research components, prospective clinico-genomic and cancer biology/biomarker data and clinical trials addressing rare tumor types. To carry this strategy into the future, the contribution of individual clinicians, collaborative cancer trial groups and pharmaceutical companies is of fundamental importance.