ECPC Press Release - 18 May 2007

Brussels, 18.05.2006

European cancer patients, gathered at the 3rd Masterclass on Patient Advocacy of the European Cancer Patients Coalition in Milan May 12–14, have called on governments to get serious about tackling cancer – a disease that will affect one in every three Europeans, and will kill one in four. There are considerable inequalities in health status and cancer survival rates within countries and across Europe. For example, if you live in Hungary you are twice as likely to die of lung cancer than if you live in Finland.

ECPC provides a single voice for more than 200 cancer patient organisations from across 31 European countries and across most cancers, including breast, prostate, lung, colorectal cancers and leukaemias, lymphomas, sarcomas to the very rare cancers.

The Coalition called on governments to take urgent action in three areas
1.    Implement national cancer plans
2.    Establish and maintain a national system of cancer registries
3.    Make available the information patients need to make informed choices about their best prevention, screening and treatment options

"Cancer is set to reach epidemic proportions in Europe as people live longer. Governments need to take action now. We, the patients and survivors, can offer a unique insight into what works and what doesn’t when it comes to saving lives in cancer,” said ECPC President Lynn Faulds Wood, herself a survivor of colorectal cancer and a British award winning TV journalist.

ECPC called on governments to develop and implement comprehensive cancer plans which tackle the disease on all fronts – from prevention, screening and early detection to top-quality diagnostics and treatment. Such a plan must include cancer research and ensure that cancer patients have access to timely and high-quality care, including psycho-social support.

“The experience of cancer plans in countries such as the UK, France, Italy and Slovenia has been positive,” said Lynn Faulds Wood. “ECPC wants to see plans developed in all European countries to set priorities and effectively allocate resources for improving cancer control; and where plans already exist include continuous monitoring to allow for further improvement. One step Europe can take right now is to implement national population-based screening programmes for breast, colorectal and cervical cancers according to European quality guidelines.”

ECPC also called on governments to ensure that all new cancer cases and all deaths that have cancer as the underlying cause are recorded in cancer registries. This is essential for monitoring the effectiveness of anti-cancer policies, yet only a minority of European countries have registries that cover their entire populations.

ECPC’s third call is for better information. “As cancer patients, we know that no-one can guarantee our survival, but we should be able to have the information that will help us maximise our chances,” said Jan Geissler, Vice-President of ECPC. “We want to know where experimental medicines are being examined from the very earliest trials in patients. For some of us patients who have reached the end of the line, timely access to experimental drugs can be our only hope.

“Patients also need to know which surgeons and centres have greatest experience at treating a particular cancer, and we need the right to a second opinion – this is crucial in a disease which is as complicated as cancer and where the treatments can be very harmful,” he added.

ECPC represents patient groups across Europe, and is uniquely placed to voice the concerns of current and future patients. “We are issuing a wake-up call to European governments to get serious about tackling cancer using a comprehensive and unified approach. Failure to do so will not only result in needless suffering, but escalate the burden cancer places on already strapped health budgets by a growing number of patients whose own quality of life is destroyed. In many cases their cancers could have been prevented or cured by screening programmes, early diagnosis and/or timely and top quality treatment,” said Hildrun Sundseth, Head of EU Policy of ECPC.

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Notes to the Editor

The European Cancer Patient Coalition was founded in 2003 under the slogan “Nothing about Us, Without Us. It is committed to improving cancer prevention, screening, early diagnosis and best treatment, reducing disparity and inequality across the EU. ECPC seeks to ensure that policy makers, politicians, health professionals, the media and the general public recognise the serious nature of cancer and the need for concerted action to reduce unnecessary death and suffering. Further information can be found at www.ecpc-online.org.

Cancer in Europe: Key facts and figures

• There are more than 2 million new cases and more than 1.1 million cancer deaths in Europe each year
• Every day 5214 Europeans are diagnosed with cancer and 3185 die from their disease
• Lung cancer is the commonest form of cancer, followed closely by colorectal cancer
• Lung, colorectal and breast cancer account for two-fifths of the entire European cancer population
• Most of the other cancer are considered rare diseases according to the EU criteria affecting not more than 5/10,000 people in the EU
• The number of Europeans with cancer will increase dramatically over the next 20 years mainly due to the ageing population