Von der Leyen focuses on prevention, research and equal access, launching consultations on Europe's Beating Cancer Plan - Hoofdinhoud

“On World Cancer Day, we begin a common path that will lead to Europe's Beating Cancer Action Plan”, said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission at the event in the European Parliament marking the launch of the public consultation process that will shape the future Plan. She stressed we would need everyone's contribution, since ‘together we can understand where to focus our attention and how to make a bigger impact'.

The aim of the public consultation is to allow citizens and stakeholders to contribute and voice their opinion on the best ways to address this issue in the EU.

President von der Leyen emphasised prevention was the best cure we currently had to fight cancer. “Science tells us that 40% of cancer cases are preventable. And yet only 3% of health budgets go into prevention”, she said adding that the range of potential actions was incredibly wide which is why the public consultation is essential.

Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, which will be presented before the end of this year, will propose actions at every key stage of the disease: Prevention measures, Early detection and diagnosis, Treatment and care, and Quality of life.

President von der Leyen also spoke of putting the most modern technologies to the service of healthcare. “The use of artificial intelligence can significantly improve the precision of early diagnosis. It can be a powerful tool to reduce false positives and negatives”, she explained.

To facilitate the link between research, diagnosis and care, we needed a heath data infrastructure as well, von der Leyen said. “We are now setting up a Common Health Data Space, an infrastructure where scientists and medical clinicians will be able not only to store clinical and research data, but also to access other scientists' data.”

An estimated 40% of EU citizens will face cancer at some stage in their lives. Cancer is today the second leading cause of death in the EU, with 1.3 million deaths and 3.5 million new cases per year. The President appealed to all to do more to beat it - individually and collectively, at Member State's level and through the EU.

She also highlighted, as a key component, the same right to health. “It should not matter where you are born, or where you live. But we all know that unfortunately, this is still not the case inside the European Union”, von der Leyen recognised saying that we must discuss and work on equality within our Union.

“We know that some battles we simply cannot win. But together we can make a difference”, she concluded.

In the process of developing the Cancer Plan, the Commission will seek the engagement of Member States, the research community, healthcare professionals, policy-makers, NGOs and patients, as well as businesses and industry, including SMEs, and other stakeholders including key international organisations.

The Plan will follow a “health in all policies” approach and be closely linked to other priorities of the Commission in areas such as the environment and climate change, social policy, digital transformation, food and nutrition, and others.